On April 8, 2014 Microsoft will end support for Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6, Office 2003, and MS Exchange Server 2003. If you still use XP, and according to Net Market Share, as of Dec. 22, 2013, 31% of people on the Internet still use Windows XP, then you should plan on migrating to Windows 7, Windows 8, Linux or the Mac before April 9, 2014. Or retiring.
As I see it, the main reason to upgrade is security. Another reason is performance. The bottom line is money.
Security.
On April 8, 2014, when Microsoft ends “extended support” for XP, MS Internet Explorer 6, MS Office 2003, MS Exchange 2003, the software engineers at Microsoft who are working to identify and patch security vulnerabilities on these applications will move on to other projects. Other computer companies, such as McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro will sooner or later discontinue support for XP. Computer software that has been compiled for Windows 7 or 8 will not run on computers running XP as their native operating system. Over time, XP will become less secure.
“After April 8, 2014, there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates. … Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks.”
This is bad, but it gets worse. Microsoft also notes,
“This may result in an officially recognized control failure by an internal or external audit body, leading to suspension of certifications, and/or public notification of the organization’s ability to maintain its systems and customer information.”
While it is conceivable that Microsoft will sell or license the code base to a third party to provide additional extended support for Windows XP, IE 6, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003, that seems unlikely. As Peter Bright wrote on Ars Technica, here, the more likely scenario is,
“As of April 9, 2014, there will be no more security updates or other fixes made for the ancient operating system…. Naturally, this also includes “Windows XP Mode” in Windows 7 and other virtualized solutions.
“It’s likely that some or all of [the people still using XP] will see their computers exploited by malware as a result.”
The costs of a data breach in the US were recently estimated by the Ponemon Institute “2013 Clost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis” (Report in PDF) at $188 per record. The data breach at Target provided information on up to 40 million credit card accounts – 40 million data records. At $188 per record, a breach of 40 million records is $7.5 Billion computer security event.
What does an inability for a business to sent email for one or two days mean?
What does it cost the business?
An exploit such as the Zeus trojan (Wikipedia / Symantec) on one PC inside a corporation can result in the company becoming “blacklisted” on Spamhaus – can result in the company being unable to send e-mail. This can be corrected, but it takes time and costs money. It may only cost $500 to $1,000 to clean up a computer and get the domain removed from the blacklist, but what does an inability to send email for two or three days cost?
Performance
The second good reason to migrate from XP to Windows 7 or 8, or another operating system is performance. If you’re running XP, you’re running old software and you’re probably running old hardware.
Since it’s release in 2003, XP has been modified extensively by Microsoft. Service Packs 1, 2, & 3, monthly security updates, hundreds of other Windows and software updates. Every modification adds overhead and slows down the computer.
XP machines tend to be five to 10 years old – and slow by today’s standards. Newer machines running Vista, 7 and 8 are likely to have more RAM, more Cache Memory, more advanced processors and perhaps a solid state drive, and will therefore be faster. Newer computers will also run graphics applications such as Google Earth, that will not run on older computers.
Hard drives tend to last seven to 10 years. Replacement hardware is hard to find and expensive. Replacing a failed hard drive with an old drive is like replacing a flat tire with a bald tire. It will work but it’s not a viable long term solution.
The Bottom Line
Time is money. New computers will be faster than those built 5 to 10 years ago. Computers running XP tend to freeze periodically. If you lose 15 minutes per day, that’s 1.25 hours per week, 5 hours per month – meaning your migration from Windows XP to 7 or 8 will pay for itself in a month or two. Conversely, a security incident can cost Thousands of Dollars, Tens of Thousands, Millions, or Billions. Not upgrading and then absorbing a security incident will be more expensive than upgrading.
Conclusion
If you don’t want to migrate from XP, you might as well retire, but even then, you may still want a computer for e-mail and the web.
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Larry Furman an analyst with Popular Logistics and a consultant, holds a BS, and an MBA. He has switched from XP to Windows 7 and has been studying Windows 8, OS X, Linux. He also has experience in computer security, including anti-virus remediation and removing domains from the Spamhaus blacklists. Larry can be reached at “lfurman97” at G Mail.