Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrade costs health organization $25.3 million

Microsoft ended Windows XP support two years ago, yet many domestic users are still running this dinosaur of an OS despite Microsoft’s repeated warnings about its security vulnerabilities. As such, Windows XP users constitute a goldmine for hackers as their systems are completely vulnerable to malware.

What’s worse: even government agencies are still using Windows XP as their main operating systems, making hacking attacks imminent. Windows XP is still the third most popular operating system in the world, and it appears that Microsoft’s desperate security warnings are falling on deaf ears.

It’s a bit difficult to understand why domestic Windows XP users won’t upgrade to Windows 10 when it’s still free, but the situation is most dire when it comes to government agencies and corporations, with most of these organizations still using Windows XP because of a lack of funds.

Case in point: the recent upgrade the Australian Queensland Health Organization had to implement. Queensland Health revealed it would transition from Windows XP to Windows 7 this year, a process with a total cost of $25.3 million.

This strategy is a bit mind-bending: first of all, Queensland Health isn’t considering the possibility of upgrading to Windows 10 as it’s still free. Secondly, Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 in 2020, which means that in three and a half years, a new Windows migration will take place with similar costs.

The core objective of the program — migration of the workstation fleet off Windows XP — will be largely complete by end June/mid-July 2016, with only a relatively small number of devices remaining on Windows XP.

Any remaining devices will be managed separately by operational business units within Queensland Health.

Microsoft is planning to support Windows 10 until 2025, therefore the transition to Microsoft’s latest OS would have been the wisest decision to take.

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