Officially on April 8th, 2014 Microsoft will stop offering any support for the Windows XP and Office 2003.
Now, you might ask yourself, “What exactly does this mean for me and my business?” Good question. Let us tell you.
- Security Risk. There will be no more patches or software updates to address critical security concerns. This means you will no longer be protectedfrom potential threats. Cybercriminals are aware that after April 8th – businesses on XP will be more vulnerable. This is a great opportunity for them to attack the helpless.
- Software Issues. Applications that ran on XP will no longer be supported and there will be no updates. You might also have software compatibility issues in the future. For example, the new versions of Office will not run on Windows XP at all.
- Increased Downtime. As technology increases with age, there is always a greater risk of system failures. This in turn means that there will likely be an increase to your overall business disruption. Time and money will be an increased expense to your business because of this.
Now this might sound a bit scary – sorry, we don’t mean to alarm you (well maybe just a bit). Our main intention is to simply inform you of what could potentially happen and how to combat it. So what can you do to prepare yourself and the security of your business? Another great question, here are some of our professional suggestions:
- Upgrade your software. The older the system, the more expensive it is to support almost a hundred percent of the time. Upgrading your software is a small investment when you look at the money you will save in productivity, less frustrations, and overall business up-time.
- Upgrade your hardware (and thus, your software as well). From a strategic standpoint – sometimes it is better to step back and take a look at the entire picture. The cost of upgrading software, in a lot of cases, is only marginally cheaper in the short term than just replacing the entire system. If your system is 3 to 5 years of age, it will be time to look at replacing it in the near future anyways – so why not kill two birds with one stone.
For more information on updating your operating software from Windows XP – please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We will gladly provide you with some expert advice on hardware & software compatibility, and make sure you are on the right track to protecting your business.