Volgens een onderzoek van International Data Corp. (IDC) is het gebruik van NT als server zwaar overhyped en worden er in kritische situaties waarbij beveiliging e.d. een grote rol spelen nog steeds voornamelijk gebruik gemaakt van Unix servers. De marketing machine van Mikrosoft slaagd er desondanks in om een totaal ander beeld te creeëren bij het publiek:
Media reports often leave the impression that Windows NT is being adopted by organizations of all sizes for every conceivable mission and that organizations are abandoning their investments in other operating environments," said Dan Kuznetsky, program director for IDC's operating environments and serverware research programs. "However, when IDC shines the light of empirical research on Windows NT usage, a different view emerges." According to IDC, NT is used primarily as a departmental infrastructure server, for things like file/print, messaging, and communications, rather than as a major enterprise server running mission-critical applications. The rest is just good advertising. "Microsoft is very good at momentum marketing. It can turn reports of strong growth in revenues, software licenses shipments, or clients being supported into a message that Windows NT is becoming the de facto standard," Kuznetsky said.
