Cost of maintaining an OS that is not supported doubles every two years.” According to IDC, it will cost $300 a year per PC to maintain an unsupported XP computer compared with $75-100 for one with support.
Says Bajwa: “The risk of not migrating is that there will be no software updates to XP. buying new hardware) could explain their glacial progress in shifting to the new OS.
While it benefits Microsoft if users upgrade fast, as they pay for the new software, for companies the cost of migration (i.e. Says Kiran Kumar, research manager, client devices, at research firm IDC India: “Migration signs among Indian enterprises have increased in the past six months.” However, shifts to new versions are happening.
The current version of XP, its third generation, called Windows XP Service Pack 3 (with bug fixes and updates to earlier versions of XP) launched in 2008 is three generations behind Windows 8 in terms of features like enabling touch and biometric reading capabilities. When Windows Vista was launched in 2006, users had just about settled down with XP and given the new hardware needs of Vista and its cumbersome user interface, migration was practically non-existent. When XP was launched in 2001 migration did not happen in a hurry and it took a few years for enterprises to move to the new system then. XP dominates on the front-end network side - more than 65,000 bank branches with over 7 lakh computers use Windows. For instance HDFC Life uses Life Asia core insurance software, while Syndicate Bank uses FlexCube from Oracle, and the State Bank of India uses Bancs from TCS which runs on Unix. Core banking runs largely on Unix and Linux and other similar software. In that sense, while lack of support will impact front-end terminals, there are no risks to core banking software (centralised software that enables such functions like deposit accounts, loans, mortgages, ATMs etc across a bank’s branches). Windows software is the dominant OS on the client side, though not on the core banking side. Adds Sainath Gawde, assistant vice-president, IT operations, HDFC Standard Life: “Once the support goes off, the system is at risk.” “It’s a terminal level issue and not a life threatening problem,” says the strategy head of the banking vertical of an IT services major, who wished not to be named as his customers include both BFSI companies and Microsoft. While computers will be impacted, experts concur the situation is not as alarming as the Y2K bug. Michael Menor, a US-based military computer specialist and network engineer, says in a blog post that hackers will pounce on Windows XP within 10 minutes of Microsoft withdrawing support and this could impact 29% of the world’s PCs that still use XP.
“Those are at best patched by Microsoft and not by antivirus makers,” adds Kaura. Also the new operating systems offer updated features.” Symantec, the maker of Norton antivirus software, will continue to offer antivirus solutions, but will be unable to check vulnerabilities of XP. Says Tarun Kaura, director, sales, India, Symantec, a computer security company: “XP has been in use for 12 years and Microsoft today has three operating systems in the market. Public sector enterprises mainly in the banking and financial services (BFSI) space lead the list of those yet to migrate, followed by manufacturing companies and telcos (see The Big Shift). The remaining 16% or about 650,000 computers are using XP, without any upgrade plans as of now.
Of this about 84% have migrated to either Windows 7 or 8 or are currently in the process of doing so. Changed some blocking issues to warnings.More than 4 million personal computers (PCs) in large enterprises - using at least 1,000 PCs each - depend on Windows OS.Fixed Azure SQL Database migration row count mismatch.Fixed case-sensitive collation issue causing data collection to fail during SKU recommendation.