LEEDS, UK, Aug 20, 2012/ Troy Media/ – The end of the world will come in December 2012, if the inaccurate reporting of Mayan predictions is to be believed. But some people could be forgiven for thinking the Mayans were simply two years too early with their doom mongering. Let me explain.
Last week I found myself sitting in an airport lounge,
checking my diary and fidgeting in my seat: I’d just had a chat with
another passenger and it left me feeling decidedly nervous.
The passenger was a gentleman named Smith (no,
seriously) and he had noticed I was huffing and puffing at the
frustratingly slow speed of my laptop. Mr Smith, on the other hand, was
smugly typing on his iPad (his smugness was purely an invention of my
imagination; I just felt I needed another focus for my frustration).
He asked “You okay? Can I help?”
“Oh I just seem to be waiting forever for my laptop to process some data. I’m wondering if it’s got a bug or something,” I answered.
A hopelessly pathetic attempt to cover-up my technical ineptitude, but hey it worked for me. It also piqued his interest.
After a few insightful questions from Mr Smith (for
which I had absolutely no answers), I agreed it would probably be wise
to get a technician to look at it. I also listened to him for another 15
minutes.
It was one of the most interesting conversations I’ve
had in a very long time; I now know that on 8th April 2014 Microsoft
will stop supporting and security patching Windows XP.
Of course, those in the know are already moving away
from XP and that Microsoft stopped sales of XP on new machines. As of
June 2012, Windows XP market share was at 26.2 per cent, after having
peaked at 76.1 per cent in January 2007 but, according to
netmarketshare.com and Mr Smith, that still represents 870 million users
worldwide. It’s a daunting number.
Mr Smith explained there are a number of options open to
companies, large and small, but he then waved a cheery goodbye to go
catch his flight (after I asked for his business card).
I know LOTS of companies which use Windows XP and they all might be au fait
with the financial implications, technical obstacles and operational
risks associated with the XP end-of-life date, but I then had a mini-Y2K
déjà vu of late preparation and media-fuelled panic.
Will companies look at the price of migrating to Windows
7, and perhaps then upgrading to Windows 8, and simply bury their heads
in the sand for now, hoping Microsoft delay the execution of XP? New
64-bit hardware will need to be added to many desktops so they are
physically capable of running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Oh, and then
there’s the server upgrades required if those PCs are on a network.
Now I’m in no position to say whether Mr Smith is right
or wrong about the scale of the challenge that some very substantial
companies may face, nor whether my tiny company is ready to consider
moving its three laptops and a desk top, oozing with well-used and
trusted Windows technology, to an alternative hardware and software, but
it did open my eyes:
If I was unaware of the
scale of the risk and investment required (because there WILL have to be
an investment, one way or the other) what sort of risk assessment might
a pan-European company with 100 000 pieces of kit need to do?
Perhaps more frighteningly,
what other risks does my external environment pose to my future
survival, and how do I ensure I’m regularly up to date with such things?
Then I paused: I vividly recall the hysteria about Y2K. I
can’t help thinking perhaps this discussion about 8th April 2014 is in
danger of becoming a greater issue than is really is, provided people address the question completely and soon.
I love my iPhone and maybe now’s the time to
buy a Mac, an iPad, integrate it all in the ‘cloud’ and migrate to
Google Apps, or perhaps I should just stay with Windows and upgrade.
Then again, if the reported Mayan prediction of the end
of the world in 2012 is true, perhaps there’s time for one more
pre-apocalypse coffee rather than worrying about Windows XP.
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