If your company has one or more of millions of PCs still running Windows XP, your options are collapsing around you rather quickly, making it more important than ever to finally get around to upgrading to a more current OS.
Microsoft formally ended all support for XP last year, and now Google has decided to follow suit, with no additional security patches available for machines running Windows XP. Currently, if you plan to keep using the aging OS, the only web browser still offering support for the platform is Firefox.
It may be a small detail to you, and as such, relatively unimportant. After all, your risks are already quite high, simply by making the decision to continue using Windows XP, sans additional security patches. The fact that another company has formally ended XP support increases your risks, yes, but only marginally.
The right answer is, of course, to migrate away from the outdated OS as quickly as possible, but that’s easier said than done for some people. Mostly, this comes down to legacy software issues. If your business absolutely depends on some or other old piece of software that you’ve been using for years, and is deeply entrenched into most or all of your critical business functions, upgrading to a new OS can be a tricky proposition.
Odds are good that such an upgrade would render the software you rely on nonfunctional. Matters get complicated further by virtue of the fact that many of the vendors of those legacy systems are no longer in business, so you can’t rely on them to assist with any migration issues that might arise.
Even if you own the source code, you may or may not still have access to it, and if you do, finding someone who knows anything about it may be like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack.
Nonetheless, every day you remain on the unsupported OS, you put yourself at ever greater risk. It’s just a matter of time before someone from the hacking community discovers you and takes full advantage of your vulnerable position. Don’t delay. Start making plans to upgrade now, if you haven’t already done so. If you’re not sure where or how to begin, contact us, and a member of our team will be more than happy to assist.
