Delaying Windows 10 Upgrade: What Could Happen?
Are your departments still working on Windows 7, which came out over 10 years ago? Find out the pressing reasons to upgrade to Windows 10 now and wait no longer.
Launched in 2015, the latest iteration of the Windows operating system, Windows 10, offers some sensational productivity features that the modern workplace needs to perform in a competitive marketplace. If you’re still running Windows 7, you may not know what you’re missing out on. We could talk all day about the advantages of upgrading now. But increased productivity aside, there are other very important reasons you shouldn’t put this off any longer.
You’ll find not one, but 4 impactful reasons not to delay your Windows 10 upgrade for another year. Here’s what business leaders like you need to know.
1. Windows 7 Soon Won’t be Supported
Windows 7 transformed office operations in leaps and bounds with intuitive new features built around the practical and often complex needs of the 21st Century workplace. Chances are that when Windows 8 came out, you decided to wait on upgrading for some smart reasons:
- Rolling out upgrades can interrupt business operations
- Upgrades cost money
- Training on new features may be necessary
Upgrading obviously isn’t without disruption. You probably made the right decision at the time. But something big is about to change the paradigm.
Microsoft has announced that they will no longer support Windows 7, their 2009 software.
This means no more updates, patches or fixes. And while that may not seem like much, it could spell disaster in the office, which leads us to the second reason to upgrade to Windows 10 now.
2. Lost Business Operations
Lack of upgrades means that over a short period, the 3rd-party applications and programs your employees use with the operating system may stop working. This may include everything from CRMs to phone systems to inventory to logistics to data analytics.
A strategically-planned upgrade rollout will cause minimal business operations disruptions, no doubt. But it’s nothing like the crisis businesses experience when they come into the office to find out a major application no longer works.
Being proactive by upgrading to Windows 10 before these critical systems stop keeps your workplace running smoothly.
3. Trouble Accessing Data
Imagine getting a call in the middle of the night. Your teams can no longer access the essential data they need to do their jobs. Customers are waiting. Chaos ensues.
It sounds like Y2K-level fear-mongering. But this isn’t an unlikely scenario when Microsoft stops supporting an operating system. The updates you get from the company now keep complex systems working together optimally. When that support is cut off, any number of challenges may arise, and they won’t be fixed by Microsoft.
A major loss of data would bring just about any company to its knees. But in some industries like retail, wholesale, healthcare and financial this could threaten the very existence of a company.
Fortunately, there’s a very easy fix and that’s not continuing to work on a 10-year-old operating system and upgrading to Windows 10.
4. Increased Risk of Cyberattacks
We saved this one for last. It’s huge. And because some cyber attackers cast such a broad net, it’s likely one of the first things that will happen, although it may be months before you know.
Cyberattackers are constantly looking for new vulnerabilities that they can exploit in operating systems. Each time they find a new one, Microsoft jumps into action, creating a patch and pushing it out to users in the form of an update. When Microsoft says it will no longer support 7, that means it’s no longer monitoring for these attacks or pushing out patches.
The longer you wait to upgrade, the more attacks you become vulnerable to. You might have the best firewall and antivirus on the market, but if your operating system–the foundation of all of your systems–is vulnerable, everything is vulnerable.
Did you know?
- Over 42 cybercriminals are on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, taking their place among organized crime bosses, major drug traffickers and serial murders. Cybercriminals aren’t some lone wolves in a dark basement. They’re organized criminals who work together to exploit businesses.
- Cybercrime is a $1.5B industry
- Nearly half of all cyber attackers choose to attack the US.
- 43% of cyberattack victims are small businesses, yet, on average, a small business invests less than $500/year to protect themselves.
- It takes a business an average of 49.6 days to discover that they’ve been breached. During that time, everything from payment information to sensitive communications are being stolen by criminals.
- Some attacks are instantaneous. While Ransomware is declining as cryptocurrency loses value and improved security creates a diminishing returns scenario, criminals still encrypt customer data and demand a ransom for its release, devastating businesses large and small.
There are many productivity-related reasons to upgrade to Windows 10. But there are also some very pressing reasons that the time is now. Start planning your upgrade today.
