By April 2014, Microsoft will end support for three generation old OS Windows XP. Amrish Goyal, Director, Windows Business Group, Microsoft Corporation (India), explains to Heena Jhingan why it is important for enterprises to move on to the latest version of Windows OS, Windows 8. Excerpts…
Please elaborate on the risks linked with staying on with Windows XP?
Microsoft commissioned IDC to examine Indian companies and analyze the benefits of upgrading to Windows 7/8 against continuing to stay on Windows XP. The biggest risk, we understand is around security. Today XP gets automatic updates that Microsoft provides to ensure that any type of security issues are addressed in a timely manner that makes the system secure, reliable and stable. And once we stop providing the support, these security updates will not happen, making the OS susceptible to any kind of malware and virus attacks. This will result in down time and customer information being lost or compromised. That’s why we are preparing companies to have a planned migration procedure.
What is the option for the enterprises that do not have an immediate plan to upgrade?
One of the basic things that companies need to do, is to make an informed and active choice about what their strategy is going to be when it comes to operating system migration. We find that a large number of companies at the moment have no idea or clarity on what technology would they like to be with. We believe that such a situation is the worst thing that can happen to a company. I think it’s absolutely fine if a company decides to be on Windows XP by choice and after having evaluated all aspects around it. In that case, it at least has a strategy.
At Microsoft we help companies by providing tools and technologies to understand what it needs to migrate and make the migration process simple by giving them proofs of concept and pilots, so that when the migration actually happens it happens seamlessly.
What is the migration cost likely to be for a mid-sized enterprise? Does the migration call for investment in hardware as well?
An estimate suggests that the cost of upgrading (assuming no enterprise license agreement and three-year amortization period) will be $ 95 vis-à-vis the cost of non-migrating which will be $ 300 per seat/user followed by almost a double the cost in the subsequent year, should they choose to opt for a custom support contract to stay on Windows XP post April 2014. So, as per IDC study, the companies are likely to spend three times more if they don’t plan to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8.
For the hardware, in many cases, the enterprises have installed PCs that can run Windows operating system; in that case the cost to be incurred is only on upgrading the OS. There are cases, where the hardware is obsolete; then they will require a change of hardware too.
What challenges do you face in preparing the enterprises to migrate?
To begin with, we want to make sure that customers do not face any issues on application compatibility front. We want them to make sure that the applications they are currently using are migration-ready. The second thing is to make sure that there are other tools from Microsoft to help seamless migration.
We have the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). It’s not free, but this is critical for enterprises to manage their deployment remotely. This suite brings easier manageability and monitoring of enterprise desktops, emergency recovery, desktop and application virtualization.
What is the estimate time required to complete the migration process?
The duration of the migration process will depend on a number of factors like the size of enterprise, readiness of the existing applications to be migrated and others. Typically, it takes about a year to 18 months for full migration. So large size companies are already running behind the time and it’s about time they start upgrading. They must act now.
According to you, what’s the market sentiment, in a way what percentage of the CIOs in India have the OS Window XP end of life plan in place?
There are still some customers that have not migrated to more current technologies for a variety of reasons. At the moment nearly 40-50% of our base is still on Windows XP. These are the customers that we wish reach out to and make sure that they understand the risks involved in staying on an outdated technology, specifically on Windows XP.
