As many are probably well-aware by now, Microsoft will soon be putting an end to their support for the Windows XP platform. Sure, you can still go ahead and use the platform, but there won’t be anymore security patches or updates. This is expected given that the software has been running for a very long time now, and we’re sure Microsoft are hoping that these customers will be upgrading to Windows 7 or Windows 8 in the meantime.
That being said, there are still many enterprises out there who are still relying on the platform, banks included. In fact earlier this year it was found that 95% of ATMs still run on Windows XP, but thanks to the cutoff date for further support, banks have reportedly been rushing to get their systems updated.
However not everyone will be making that deadline, and according to reports, this will result in millions of dollars being paid to Microsoft for additional customer support that extends beyond the dateline. According to Reuters, it seems that there are many banks out there who have yet to upgrade and would have to pay Microsoft for additional customer support to ensure that their system stays up to date against hackers and viruses.
According to a Microsoft spokesman, “There are certainly large enterprise customers who haven’t finished their migrations yet and are purchasing custom support. The cost will depend on both the specific needs of the customer and what support they already have in place, so it’s different for every customer.”
It has been estimated that the cost to banks to extend customer support and to upgrade their systems would be anywhere between 50-60 million pounds. This is according to Sridhar Athreya, the head of London-based financial services advisory at SunGard Consulting, a number which could have been lower had the banks upgraded their systems before the cutoff date.
Athreya states, “They were probably not very serious about the directive that came in from Microsoft. There’s a lot of change going on at these banks at this moment in time and they would have seen Windows XP as one more change.”
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