Windows XP’s retirement may leave companies with vulnerable applications

Feb 7, 2013 12:21 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft will officially retire Windows XP in April 2014, but this end date is causing fears for companies across the world that may not complete the transition to another operating system.

According to a survey performed by UK firm Avanade and involving 200 IT directors and CIOs, 80 percent of the respondents admitted that Windows XP’s death would most likely result in several unsupported and vulnerable applications.

In addition, 43 percent of the company officials admitted that no migration plan was currently in place, even though Microsoft is urging everyone to move to a newer OS every once in a while.

The full transition from Windows XP to a newer platform is estimated to take up to 18 months, so most companies may find themselves with several critical applications unsupported in April 2014 when Microsoft stops providing updates for the 11-year-old operating system.