Windows 10 Marks 5th Anniversary - Security Reminders For MSPs

Windows 10 is celebrating its fifth year, but despite the established status of the Microsoft flagship OS, a significant portion of businesses today still use out-of-support OS like Windows 7. For today’s businesses, there’s really no excuse for not migrating to Windows 10. While Microsoft was generous in the amount of time it provided support for its legacy operating systems, all are now out of support. And businesses cannot claim the switch to Windows 10 is a downgrade—the new OS has great features, and compatibility isn’t an issue.

In reality, any device not running on Windows 10 needs to be treated as a higher security risk and could cause significant issues for individuals who now find themselves working from home offices. In fact, the ubiquitous shift to remote working means now more than ever IT equipment needs to be running the newest or most current software to ensure compatibility with business-critical applications hosted locally on equipment or in the cloud. This is essential in maintaining productivity amongst the workforce while also negating any frustrations an enterprise’s employees might encounter through a lack of access to the applications, they need to do their job.

With this year marking the fifth anniversary of Windows 10 and in this heightened period of uncertainty, it’s another reminder that enterprises need to prepare their IT infrastructure for future opportunities and challenges. It’s an opportunity for businesses to transition to a more secure and superior OS. Being smart about OS migration will ease the transition. Embarking on a business-wide migration is a mammoth task, but the smart place to start will be to ensure mission-critical devices are migrated to Windows 10 as soon as possible.

Above all, it’s important to recognize the benefits of keeping your OS up to date—better efficiency, increased user-friendliness, and faster apps. Avoid thinking “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” an attitude to software that simply doesn’t work in the long term.