14 DAY TRIAL // The United States Department of Defense (DoD) said today that the migration to Windows 10 is nearly complete, as the majority of systems are currently running the operating system and only a couple of offices yet to upgrade.
Microsoft and the US DoD announced in February 2016 a major upgrade process involving no less than 4 million devices used by agencies, with the original target for completion set for early 2017.
The deadline, however, was missed, due to upgrade challenges, like compatibility issues that needed to be addressed before switching some systems to Windows 10. Hardware upgrades were also required, so the US DoD then estimated that the transition to the new operating system would be completed by March 31, 2018.
Painful upgrade
DOD CIO Essye Miller says the process was extremely challenging, and although no specifics were provided, she most likely referred to systems that required additional tweaks before being upgraded to Windows 10, like those running on old hardware or special software solutions.
“For the most part, with the exception of a couple [offices], we are there,” Miller was quoted as saying. “We'll spend sometime this morning with the deputy secretary just congratulating folks for their hard work. It's been a long, long, long journey.”
Microsoft uses the partnership with DoD as living proof that Windows 10 is a highly secure operating system, thus trying to make it the platform of choice for more organizations and state agencies across the world.
“Because the U.S. Department of Defense is a prime target of cyber criminals and one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world, its leaders know the importance of securing its baseline systems,” said Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, back in 2016 when the partnership was announced.
Windows 10 is set to receive a new major update called Spring Creators Update as soon as this month, with the rollout to begin as early as April 10.