XPect The XPected – Embrace The New Dawn And Survive Life After XP -- SEO Junkies

March 30, 2015 - PRLog -- iCoreprovide ITSM, supplier management and ITIL service transition (http://icore-ltd.com/service-transition-and-deployment) using effective strategies as well as effective policies and processes which will bring you success.

XPect The XPected – Embrace The New Dawn And Survive Life After XP

Unless you have been living in a remote community with no access to the internet, you will have heard about Microsoft ending Windows XP support as of the April 8, 2014. There have been numerous articles on-line on the topic – some predicting doom and gloom whilst others embracing the coming of the new dawn.

If reports are to be believed, whilst some organisation have actively addressed the end of support, many have ignored the issue leaving themselves exposed to potentially serious security risks, future supportability issues and significant additional support costs.

So what is all the fuss about? Is this just media hype or do organisations really need to be concerned? Surely if so many organisations are still using XP, it must be ok? Unfortunately that is not the case and there are many good reasons for the fuss.

Why Does It Matter?

Organisations that have done nothing are faced with a number of increasing risks to their systems, data and interfaces and therefore they become a risk to their Business Customers. The risks include:

Compromised Security

• Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks.

• XP will rapidly become less secure than successor Microsoft Operating Systems

(OS); Microsoft has significantly improved the operating systems that have followed

XP and will continue to address security issues in the later OS versions, which in turn provides the ‘hackers’ with a specification of where the vulnerabilities are within XP .

• Browser vulnerability - XP supports up to Internet Explorer v9 (IE9) only; the benefits of IE10 and IE11 security features are not and will never be available to XP users.

• So all hackers need to do is reverse engineer Microsoft security features to discover the full range of XP vulnerabilities.

Spiralling support costs

• Limited Microsoft on-going support for devices and applications running on XP will mean outsource providers charging premium support costs.

Approximate additional costs of running XP (per license)

· £120 in 2014

· £240 in 2015

· £600 in 2016

Increased downtime and lack of third-party support

• Risk of system failure and increased downtime due to ageing hardware that is needed to run Windows XP.

• There has been a steady withdrawal of support for XP from independent softwarevendors and hardware manufacturers since 2011.

• Without this vendor support, if something goes wrong, there may be nothing that youcan do about it.

• Compliance and Potential Loss of Customers and/or Business

• Internal and/or external audit failure could lead to the suspension of certifications,and/or public notification of the organisation’s inability to maintain its systems andcustomer information.

• Exposure to major security risks, compliance and audit failure, vulnerability to virus &malicious s/w attacks, increased costs, failing applications, service performance, etc.could potentially lead to loss of Customers and/or Business opportunity.

• Cross-Business compatibility issues may mean that B2B/B2C initiatives may notwork or may not be trusted.

ITSM & ITIL Service Transition From iCore

iCore have supported a number of organisations in these ‘Desktop Migrations’ in variesguises, whether a migration, a hardware replacement programme or a major office move. Through this experience they are able to bring necessary knowledge, experience and accelerators to help you get it, and then get it right.

To talk to iCore about how they can help you though this XP nightmare or provide any of their other services including ITSM and ITIL service transition then phone them on +44 (0) 207 464 8414 or email info@icore-ltd.com

End