CIO
opinion
CIO
OPINION
“
ORGANISATIONS
RUNNING ANY
OLDER SYSTEM,
INCLUDING
WINDOWS 7,
SHOULD BE
REMINDED
THAT PUTTING
OFF A SYSTEM
UPGRADE WILL
NEVER SOLVE
THE PROBLEM, IT
WILL ONLY MAKE
IT WORSE.
apps usually cannot be run easily on the
newer system.
If the organisation relies on these
applications to provide their services, they
will understandably be reluctant to embark
on the challenge of rewriting these apps to
suit the new OS, which can be a lengthy and
very costly process. This dilemma has led to
the millions of computer systems that have
yet to be updated, despite the security risks
that putting off an upgrade causes.
5. Not all organisations have learned
their lesson
Particularly when it comes to tech, there
will always be the next big thing. The
two-year countdown to Windows 7’s EOL
has already begun, with the date set for
January 14 2020. However, with 7 still
standing as the most popular OS, it seems
that many IT leaders have not learned
from the mistakes made with XP. Migrating
everything on your current system to
a newer version takes time, something
which organisations that migrated from
XP to 7 will already know. Therefore, it
is concerning that so many Windows 7
machines still exist without any form of
contingency plan for this deadline, as it will
prove difficult to complete a full migration
in less than two years.
As the fourth anniversary of XP’s end of life
comes and goes, organisations running any
older system, including Windows 7, should be
reminded that putting off a system upgrade
will never solve the problem, it will only make
it worse when you are forced to face it. n
Organisations operating old OSs may
find themselves unable to comply with
the latter in particular, as their limited
security is unlikely to be strong enough to
protect customers’ data from potential
cyberattacks. An unpatched system is an
easily recognisable red flag and should an
attack occur, the organisation would not only
risk losing the data that is compromised, but
they would also be subject to fines as a result
of failing to comply with GDPR, costing up to
€20 million or 4% of their global turnover.
4. Migrating apps is a big, if not the
biggest, reason to run legacy OS
A recent FOI request by Cloudhouse
discovered that according to UK councils,
migrating applications was the biggest
problem when upgrading to a new operating
system. This is an issue that affects not
just public sector, but organisations across
multiple industries. When bespoke apps
are written, they are often designed solely
for the system they are written on. This
can cause problems when the organisation
eventually tries to upgrade the OS, as the
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