For independent software vendors (ISVs), platform adoption decisions are one of the most crucial choices they make, impacting all aspects of their business from customer acquisition to operational costs to profitability. As a result, ISVs look to make the most informed platform decisions possible. Although platform adoption choices are a core focus for ISVs, they look at many of the same kinds of factors as end-user firms do and thus can be used as a barometer for how the various technology platforms compare for all companies to help other kinds of businesses make better informed platform decisions themselves. As a result, this white paper explores why ISVs make the platform decisions that they do based on four years of on-going research of over 8,500 ISVs in 2007 alone and a new behavioral study of a subset of 200 ISVs conducted around platform adoption in September 2007. It then looks at the impact of these decisions on your business and aims to provide businesses guidance on platform adoption.