Microsoft will end support for Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 on 8 April 2014.
The company recently posted reminders on its blog encouraging customers to take action to move off Windows XP within the next year.
The end of Extended Support is based on the company's 2002 Lifecycle Policy, which allocates each product five years of Mainstream Support and five years of Extended Support. After the end of Extended Support, Windows XP will still be available, but with potential shortcomings and risks, including security risks resulting from the lack of availability of security updates and patches.
Only Microsoft can fix the source code, says Gartner, meaning no third party can offer an adequate level of support to solve these problems reliably.
It can take an enterprise anywhere between 18 and 32 months to deploy a new desktop operating system (such as Windows 7 or 8), says Microsoft, meaning organisations that have not already begun this migration are behind schedule and should begin planning and testing immediately, in order to deploy before support ends.
According to Gartner, more than 15% of medium-sized and large enterprises will still be running Windows XP after support ends, on at least 10% of their PCs. Aside from the potential security problems that accompany running an out-of-date OS, system downtime may be caused by a lack of support for applications running on Windows XP.
For those organisations that will not be able to deploy new systems completely before April 2014, Gartner recommends prioritising users and applications to ensure critical resources are addressed and secured first.
If there is not enough time to migrate, external service providers may help to speed up the process, and external security vendors should be consulted to confirm that they will continue support for XP until the date the enterprise expects to switch to a new system. Machines still running XP can be segregated into a separate network to increase security, says Gartner.
A problem with deployment may arise if certain business applications are not supported for Windows 7 or 8. In such scenarios, Gartner recommends upgrading or replacing the application, or alternatively, running the application remotely or using virtualisation.
After Extended Support ends, Custom Support will be available, at $200 per PC for the first year, and a minimum cost of $200 000, regardless of the number of PCs requiring support.
Share
