Microsoft India(NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that more than 80% of PCs in large enterprises in India have successfully moved away from Windows XP, thereby reducing the risk to their operations.
“We want every PC in India to move away from Windows XP before support ends on April 8, 2014. Our customers use Windows operating system to run critical processes which help them at work and in their lives. Therefore, it is important that they use a version of Windows that gives them the best possible security and capability,” said Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd.
 |
With 28 working days left for businesses in India to secure their IT environments and migrate from Windows XP to a higher version, Indian enterprises have shown significant momentum in adopting Windows 7/ Windows 8. In the last eight months, there has been large-scale migration from Windows XP to Windows 7/8. However, there are still about 16% of large enterprise computers that are active on Windows XP which pose a significant security risk to their organizations.
With the end of support for its Windows XP solution kicking in on April 8, 2014, 12 years after it was first launched, Windows XP computers will be a lot more vulnerable to security threats.
In addition to concerns over security, companies that do not upgrade will also face increased IT and maintenance costs. According to a report by IDC in 2013, companies continuing on Windows XP post April 8, 2014, will spend three times more on support and maintenance of their IT than those that will migrate to newer platforms.
Furthermore, continued reliance on Windows XP will have an impact on customer service and bottom line profitability. A report commissioned through Ascentius shows that delays in customer service due to security breaches will increase risking reputation and customer relationships. The waiting time for metro and urban bank branches is expected to rise to more than 30 minutes for an average transaction.
Â
