14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP will officially go dark on April 8, 2014, so users are now urged to upgrade to a newer operating system as soon as possible. Only if they want their data to be fully secure, that is.
But some organizations have apparently found the key to continue using Windows XP beyond the retirement date: isolation.
Basically, if you push a Windows XP computer offline, the threats that Microsoft is talking about so often no longer exist, so you can safely stick to XP for as long as you want.
Lotus F1, for example, is one of the businesses that will turn to this strategy, as Windows XP is still a key player in its long-term strategy.
"We will still be running XP beyond the end-of-life date mostly in labs and we've narrowed the purpose of that machine down to, 'It runs a jig' or 'It runs one thing,'" Graeme Hackland, CIO at Lotus F1, was quoted as saying by ZDNet.
Analysts, on the other hand, claim that migrating from Windows XP can be delayed, but at some point, everybody needs to do it.
"The problem that we see is that people are still going to run their business on [Windows XP]. It's not point problems; it's their entire business," Paul Veitch, director, application development at services firm Avanade UK.
"Key for those organisations is that at the end of life you won't have support from Microsoft or if you choose to go into extended support then you'll be paying larger and larger fees," he said.
The Japanese are also planning to turn to isolation when it comes to XP computers, but they’ve adopted a rather unique strategy.
Authorities will soon cut Internet cables from Windows XP computers and tape up the Ethernet ports, just to make sure that no one ever tries to get these systems back online.
No matter the way you do it, isolation might do the trick. What’s your take on this?