30% of companies won't upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10

Microsoft plans to end Windows 7 support on January 14, 2020. The company advised Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible mainly for security reasons.

Many individual users have already upgraded to Windows 10. As of now, Windows 10 is indeed the most popular operating system in the world, surpassing Windows 7’s market share. However, migration is still a big challenge for business users. Although business users have started to upgrade, they are still moving at a slow pace.

A study conducted by security company 1E suggests that approximately two-thirds of the business machines have upgraded to Windows 10.

Still, businesses need to migrate the rest of the machines within the next six months.

Those who want to stick to Windows 7 will pay a handsome amount for the extended support on a per device basis.

Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade FAQ: Here are the answers to all your questions

Data security is a major concern for businesses

Today, businesses are more concerned about security as compared to the past. Around 9/10 businesses who participated in the survey believe that security is a major factor these days.

It is worth mentioning that IT admins admitted they don’t have control over half of the machines in their network. They might face problems while accessing those machines that are remotely accessing their network.

A main obstacle to the transition appears to be the growth in remote work, which 77% agree is creating security concerns specifically around the challenge of updates. The extraordinarily high rates of concern around the energy sector for remote work (92%) are unsurprising, since, from oil rigs to oil fields, from tankers to trucks, it has long been an intrinsically ‘remote’ industry.

Keep in mind that Windows 10 has some drawbacks as well. Microsoft is still working on improving the OS and users need to deal with plenty of issues every now and then. Therefore, IT admins need to spend part of their time testing new patches before rolling them to PCs.

However, the security advantages offered by Windows 10 are worth any upgrade issues. After all, let us not forget that Windows 7 actually facilitated the spread of the Wannacry ransomware. For businesses and organizations, it is much easier to carefully plan the upgrade than deal with the after effects of a ransomware or malware attack. In both cases, companies and organizations have to shell out money out of their pockets to fix the problem.

Do you think that businesses will overcome the Windows 10 upgrade challenge? Share your opinions and thoughts in the comments section below.

RELATED ARTICLES YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT:

• Upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10: Best practices
• 7 best free antivirus solutions for Windows 7 PCs

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on January 10, 2020 for freshness, and accuracy.