Complexity arises for Windows Migration with BYOD Trend

According to a Forrester survey on BYOD by ITC Infotech, it has been revealed that businesses, which are struggling to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 or 8, should take proactive steps for migration. The survey also reveals that more than two-thirds of the North American and European information workers personally select smartphones and tablets they use for work. Moreover, 46% use laptops that are not on the company-approved device list. This “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend is blurring the boundaries between personal and work IT, with many of the staff increasingly using their own devices to run enterprise applications and access company data.
 
Hardeep Singh Garewal, President  European Operations, ITC Infotech, said, We are encouraging and managing the IT estate for enterprises with multiple operating systems coexisting in the environment.
 
Hardeep further added that once the deadline date is overshot, it will lead to cost escalation of up to three times as much to continue to receive support for XP, and then after a short period, support will be cut off altogether. It is, therefore, important for businesses to address the BYOD issue at the same time.
 
As per a recent update, Microsoft will turn off support for its Windows XP operating system on April 8 next year. This may leave many IT organizations with a tough challenge if they don’t migrate in good time.

ITC Infotech warns that companies need to start the migration immediately or risk overshooting the deadline. Those who are still using XP, come April 8, 2014, could face huge costs as Microsoft will raise the price of support for the old system to encourage migration of reluctant users.