14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will retire Windows XP is about six months, but lots of businesses and users across the world are yet to start the transition to another operating system.
A study conducted by market consulting and analytics firm Ascentius Consulting revealed that no less than 52 percent of the computers owned by Indian banks are still running Windows XP, while 30 percent of the PCs used by the government are powered by the same aging OS.
What’s more, 26 percent of Indian manufacturing companies and software makers stick to Windows XP, even though end of support is quickly approaching for this particular OS.
“We see that software companies have a good plan to fully migrate by April, and even manufacturing companies have a fairly good plan to meet the deadline. But we see absolutely no plan in the BFSI sector,” Amrish Goyal, general manager Windows Business Group at Microsoft told Business Standard.
“It takes about three to six months for a full migration to take place. Indian public sector banks are not taking the issue as seriously as it is.”
While this is not at all surprising given the fact that Windows XP is still a decent OS and because moving to a newer platform is still an expensive process, it’s clearly a risk that all these banks and government offices do not need to take.
Microsoft has warned that Windows XP would no longer receive updates as of April 8, 2014, which means that every single vulnerability found in the operating system will be an open door for hackers who’ll want to get inside a computer still running this OS.
At the same time, Microsoft also plans to stop issuing updates for its Security Essentials anti-virus product beyond the XP retirement date, in an attempt to urge users to make the move to Windows 7 or Windows 8.