What does it mean to your business?
Windows XP was released in 2001 and has been Microsoft’s most popular operating of the last decade. It was stable, reliable and, for many businesses, there was no financial benefit in upgrading to any of its successors: Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8. Officially, Microsoft stopped supporting it years ago but many businesses liked it so much that they took out the Windows XP Extended Support to prolong its life cycle but all good thing must come to an end and, as of 8th April 2014, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP entirely. This means that, generally speaking, there will be no more technical support from Microsoft for Windows XP.
- There will be no more security patches released for Windows XP
- There will be no more support for Windows XP
- There will be no more updates for Windows XP
- Security issues might start appearing in Windows XP
- Machines with Windows XP might put your network at risk
- Other software vendors will stop supporting Windows XP
Now, we’re not an IT firm, but we do know digital transformation can only work if built on a solid foundation and the once reliable Windows XP has, sadly, become a ticking time bomb.
If you haven’t already done so, get in touch with your preferred IT supplier start migrating to a newer operating system while there’s still time to test it on your systems. It may seem like a big expense but, sooner or later, you’ll have to deal with the inevitable cost of security & compliance issues, compounded by problems as your software suppliers stop trying to support Windows XP and performance and extended downtime issues that will bite into your company’s ability to operate.