News

Sticking with Windows XP Has Financial Downside, IDC Says

An IDC study commissioned by Microsoft suggests that organizations can save money by moving from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Microsoft has been urging organizations to migrate from the 10-year-old Windows XP, which has been embraced by commercial users to a surprising degree. By the end of 2011, Windows XP still accounted for 42 percent of commercial Windows client operating systems, IDC estimated in its report, though that figure is expected to shrink to 11 percent by the end of 2014.

IDC's report, "Mitigating Risk: Why Sticking With Windows XP Is a Bad Idea," is a financial analysis based on interviews with nine "large" organizations (an average of 3,680 employees). The study quantified the costs associated with staying on Windows XP, including lost user productivity time, as well as IT support and help desk costs. The one main factor that isn't accounted for in the study is the costs associated with updating applications to run on Windows 7.

Of course, security should be a principal concern for organizations still using Windows XP, as the OS will lose security-patch support by April 8, 2014 in accordance with Microsoft's product lifecycle schedule. Windows XP is moving out of its "extended support" phase, which means "the end of security updates, (paid) hotfix agreement support, and per-incident support services," according to IDC's report. An alternative option for organizations might be to pay Microsoft for "custom support," but that can be an expensive option.

IDC estimated that the annual cost for organizations to maintain a Windows XP-based PC is $870. That same cost for a Windows 7-based PC is $168, so organizations potentially can save about $701 per PC per year by moving to Microsoft's newer OS, according to the report.

The report breaks down Windows XP user productivity costs into six categories, including time lost to malware, time taken to reimage a PC, reboot waits, downtime and time waiting for help desk support. Reboots and malware constituted the top two productivity time drainers among users.

"Overall, user productivity is dramatically boosted by Windows 7, while Windows XP users are saddled with 7.8 additional hours of lost time per year compared with their colleagues using Windows 7," according to the report.

Lost IT productivity time using Windows XP is listed in the report under "operational activities" and "downtime-related activities." Patch management and deploying applications topped the operational activities as time wasters for IT pros. Meanwhile, the top issues causing downtime for IT pros were dealing with malware and providing help desk support.

"Moving to Windows 7 will reduce the time invested in patch management by 82%," the report claims (p. 6).

Over a three-year period, the study estimated that organizations that move from Windows XP to Windows 7 will have a 137 percent return on investment. However, the study acknowledges that in addition to the capital expenditures needed for the migration, organizations will have operational expenditures, which are more difficult to calculate. The study optimistically states that "once an upgrade is completed, and the operational costs are lowered, those operational cost benefits continue to accrue into the future with no further direct capex investment."

See Also:

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Microsoft Offers Support Extensions for Exchange 2016 and 2019

    Microsoft has introduced a paid Extended Security Update (ESU) program for on-premises Exchange Server 2016 and 2019, offering a crucial safety cushion as both versions near their Oct. 14, 2025 end-of-support date.

  • An image of planes flying around a globe

    2025 Microsoft Conference Calendar: For Partners, IT Pros and Developers

    Here's your guide to all the IT training sessions, partner meet-ups and annual Microsoft conferences you won't want to miss.

  • Notebook

    Microsoft Centers AI, Security and Partner Dogfooding at MCAPS

    Microsoft's second annual MCAPS for Partners event took place Tuesday, delivering a volley of updates and directives for its partners for fiscal 2026.

  • Microsoft Layoffs: AI Is the Obvious Elephant in the Room

    As Microsoft doubles down on an $80 billion bet on AI this fiscal year, its workforce reductions are drawing scrutiny over whether AI's ascent is quietly reshaping its human capital strategy, even as official messaging avoids drawing a direct line.