With less than a year until Microsoft ends support for Windows 7, new research from Kollective has revealed that nearly half (46%) of IT professionals still have no plan in place to manage the “as a service” updates associated with Windows 10.
The firm's Death of Windows 7 Report surveyed 260 IT professionals from the US and UK to discover the potential costs and security threats facing businesses that fail to prepare their systems for Windows as a service following the end of Windows 7 support.
Kollective found that 15 percent of IT professionals had no idea about Microsoft's plans to transform Windows to an “as a service” updated model.
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Windows as a Service
To make matters worse, nearly a fifth (17%) of IT departments were unaware that Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 on January 14th, 2020. Of those surveyed, six percent said that while they are aware of the end of support, their businesses have yet to begin planning to migrate to Windows 10.
Kollective's CEO Dan Vetras explained the security implications that an “as a service” model brings to IT departments, saying:
“With Microsoft describing Windows 10 as the ‘last ever’ version of Windows, it’s no secret that businesses will soon be moved over to a more fluid ‘as a service’ update model. While this means fewer major OS migrations, it also means a far more frequent stream of updates — with an average size of over 1GB. For many IT departments working with dispersed networks or within international organizations, installing such frequent updates on all of their endpoints simply isn’t possible.
“Businesses need to start preparing their infrastructure now to support future Windows as a Service updates. The fact that nearly half of IT teams have no plan in place is a real cause for concern.
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