CIO OPINION
CIO opinion
“
IT SEEMS THAT
MANY IT LEADERS HAVE
NOT LEARNED FROM THE
MISTAKES MADE WITH XP.
/////////////////
Mat Clothier, CEO, CTO and Founder at Cloudhouse
The top five things we’ve
learned since Windows
XP’s ‘end of life’
As cyberattacks are ever
more frequent, enterprises
are continually at risk. Mat
Clothier, CEO, CTO and
Founder at Cloudhouse,
uses Windows XP’s ‘end of
life’ as an example of how
important it is to upgrade
computer systems to
ensure they are secure
and to protect against
further attacks.
I
t has been four years since Windows
XP reached its ‘end of life’ back in
April 2014. The end of life (EOL) of
an operating system marks the point
after which security updates and patches
will no longer be provided; although the
systems still run seemingly as they did
before, they will thereafter lack the level
of protection that is required today to
prevent cyberattacks.
It is important for all organisations to
understand the risks that maintaining
older, unsupported operating systems
(OS) can have. So, what have we all
learned in the last four years about the
effect of XP’s EOL?
1. Frighteningly enough, lots
of organisations are still using
Windows XP
Despite the length of time that has
passed since Microsoft stopped
www.intelligentcio.com
supporting Windows XP, there are still
many organisations worldwide that run
the rapidly-ageing operating system.
As of May last year, XP was the world’s
third most popular OS, behind Windows
7 in first and Windows 10 in second.
Gartner predicted that there would be
approximately a total of two billion PCs
in use worldwide in 2014 and by using
this number as a guide, that would mean
that in May 2017 there would have been
around 140 million computers running XP.
Even if we assume that this number
has reduced since then, allowing for the
natural evolution of digital transformation
projects and upgrades still means that
there is potentially over 100 million XP
machines in use today. Having such a
large number of computers without up-
to-date security is a major concern, both
for the organisations that use them and
their customers who rely on the services
they provide.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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