MSPs Can Learn From Windows XP On How To Grow Their Business

“A fool learns from his experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”

- Otto von Bismarck

This insightful sentiment can apply to nearly any aspect of life and business.

Even Windows XP.

Microsoft’s end-of-life (EOL) service for Windows XP presents MSPs and their clients with the perfect learning opportunity for Windows 7 EOL.

In April 2009, Microsoft halted mainstream support for XP but continued monthly security updates. However, design changes, warranty claims and free technical support were not offered. However, organizations hung on to XP since Windows Vista wasn’t much of a motivator to upgrade.

For five years, Microsoft kept XP in a suspended state of EOL until April 2014, when they terminated all support, save for a scant few critical security updates. Microsoft urged companies to migrate to the newer Windows 7 or 8, cautioning that cybercriminals could reverse engineer security patches for more current operating systems to target equivalent vulnerabilities in XP. Additionally, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team warned that running XP on their machines could prevent compliance with the government’s information security requirements. Yet, many businesses carried on with XP anyway.