Depression

Acceptance

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Getting Over Your XPWindows XP end-of-life and why breaking up is hard to do.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 SO... HOW BAD IS IT?

02 IT ’S NOT YOU,IT ’S XP

03 EXODUS OS

04 HOLDING OUT ‘TILTHE BITTER END

05 THE TAKEAWAY &DETAILS ON THE DATA

PAGE 06

PAGE 10

PAGE 16

PAGE18

PAGE 20

Getting Over Your XP. 5

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

4 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

As XP’s end-of-life draws near, here are some tips and trends for making the migration without things getting… messy!

INTRODUCTION

The coming end-of-life for XP could become a source of heartache for some IT shops. Never fear – having a solid plan will help ease the turmoil. We’re covering the hows and whys of making the upgrade and challenges you’ll face getting the whole thing switched over. Consider this your handy guide to overcoming the jilted love only an IT pro and their OS can know.

6 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

01SO… HOW BAD IS IT?

In 2001, Windows XP was the new OS in town that IT pros wanted to get to know. Initially attracted to XP’s good looks, they soon fell in love with this reliable compan-ion. But like everything under the sun, its time has come. The honeymoon feels like yesterday, but the relationship (as all good things do) must come to an end. On April 8th, 2014, Microsoft will turn out the lights on the old OS.

So on a scale of nonchalant to all-out panic, just how terrified should you be of the coming OS collapse? Nothing (much) to worry about. We’ve got the data to show you just where everybody is (and isn’t) on the road to upgrading, so you can see where your organization stands.

The obvious question: Why ditch good ol’ XP if it still works just fine? Simple: It won’t work fine for much longer.

The reason? Microsoft will soon stop releasing security patches for Windows XP, exposing stadium-sized gaps in secu-rity on machines still on the OS. This and a slew of other threats are going to rear their ugly heads in the EOL era, but this time no cavalry is coming in the form of life-saving updates from Microsoft. That’s the real bottom line here: It’s cold out there in unsupported-land.

Look Ma, No Hardware! 7

April

8

XP

BBQ Flavor

Getting Over Your XP. 98 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

April

8

On top of that, peripheral and device vendors will pull their support for XP, raising the possibility of a million different little headaches caused by obscure compatibility demons. And there are definitely security risks to be had there, too.

Add up all those vulnerabilities and they come to more than just the threats themselves – they also risk legal action. According to the General Services Admin-istration (GSA), 46 U.S. states have data privacy laws that enforce some measure of non-compliance penalty, and a data breach traced back to an XP system could easily fail the whole “due diligence” thing.

So we’ve established that you and XP should see other OSes, but how prevalent is it still in the IT community? By now, isn’t XP a member of the AARP?

Not really. Seventy-six percent of respondents in a recent Spiceworks survey said that they still support XP. Of those, 97% support XP desktops and 68% sup-port XP laptops, suggesting that XP is still common in the IT wilds. And even with the pressure to switch due to XP EOL, 44% of respondents with XP desktops and 42% of respondents with XP laptops are running it on more than a quarter of the machines in their company – an astounding number considering the operational cliff those machines are facing.

All of this represents a particular challenge for IT pros who are already crunched for time and money, making upgrades a significant challenge. All in all, XP still represents a sizable slice of market – and an obstacle for any IT pro contem-plating migration.

76%

97%68%

Desktops Laptops

IT PROS WHO CURRENTLY SUPPORT WINDOWS XP

PERCENT OF THOSE IT PROS RUNNING WINDOWS XP ON:

PERCENT OF TOTAL NETWORK DEVICES RUNNING WINDOWS XP

0

5

10

15

20

25

Less than 5% 6%-10% 11%-15% 16%-25% 26%-50% 51%-75% 76%-99% 100% Don’t know

Laptop ComputersDesktop Computers

24%21%

11%13%

12%13%

8%7%

13%14%

18%17%

11%9%

4%3%

1% 1%

Perc

ent o

f Res

pond

ents

Percent of Total Network Devices Running Windows XP

Getting Over Your XP. 1110 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

02IT’S NOT YOU,IT’S XP As general trends in the IT community and some very persuasive, previously cited data shows, we’re just not right for each other (isn’t that always the way?). But who will take XP’s place? I just don’t know if this wounded heart can ever settle down with an OS again… unless it’s Windows 7.

Survey results show that 49% of respondents plan to upgrade some of their XP computers to Windows 7 and 48% plan to replace with new Windows 7 computers.

XPBBQ Flavor

IT PRO PLANS FOR DEVICES WITH WINDOWS XP

0 10 20 30 40 50

Upgrade to Windows 7

Upgrade to Windows 8

Upgrade to Windows 8.1

Leave some systems alone

Decommission and buy new Windows 7

Decommission and buy new Windows 8

Decommission and buy new Windows 8.1

Upgrade Leave some systems alone Decommission and buy new

49%

4%

5%

36%

48%

5%

9%

(Respondents were able to select multiple options).

Getting Over Your XP. 1312 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

OS CURRENTLY USED TODAY

REASONS FOR SELECTING WINDOWS 70 20 40 60 80 100

30%28%

16%

39%

26%

96%

Apple/Mac OS

Linux

Windows 8.1

Windows 8

Windows 7

Windows Vista

30%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

74%

47%

44%

34%

12%

8%

Maintain a similar user experience

Compatibility with current software

Compatibility with current business-critical apps

Compatibility with current hardware

Budget limitations

IT pros and end users �nd Windows 8 undesirable

Almost three quarters (74%) of those moving to Windows 7 are doing so to “maintain a similar user experience.” It seems like a fancy way of saying “Windows 7 looks a lot like XP, so I won’t have to retrain users (and we already use Win7 now).”

This analysis is doubly supported by the fact that most survey respondents (96%) actually are using Windows 7 now. And it’s a fair stance!

Windows 7, besides being comfortably familiar, is old enough to have an established track record of support and compatibility.

This idea is supported by the sizeable per-centages of IT pros who chose Windows 7 for its demonstrated compatibility with software (47%), business-critical apps (44%) and hardware (34%).

Most IT pros are moving from XP to Windows 7, and an overwhelming majority are doing it alone. A whopping 97% of IT pros told us that they’ll handle migration from XP in house, with only 2% preferring to contract it out to a third party.

PLANS FOR MANAGING WINDOWS XP MIGRATION

97%

2%1%

We will handle ourselves

Other We will outsource to a third party

14 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013 Getting Over Your XP. 15

TOP CHALLENGES IT PROS ANTICIPATE DURING XP MIGRATION

0 10 20 30 40 50

Lack of time 47%

Lack of resources 36%

Compatibility with current software 33%

User training 28%

Downtime 27%

Compatibility with business-critical apps 27%

We don’t anticipate challenges13%

Nearly half of respondents worry

about the loss of time they’ll face

during the XP migration.

There will also be challenges ahead (no surprise there). A strong majority (87%) of IT pros anticipate hitting a few snags along the way. While some anticipate internal bandwidth challenges, stating they’re concerned with lack of time and resources available, others feel a seamless transition may be out of reach – they see hurdles around maintaining compatibility with current software, hardware and business-critical apps.

Getting Over Your XP. 1716 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

03EXODUS OS

So where’s the IT world in the midst of all this upgrade talk? Just how far are they along the golden path? We’ll give it to you straight. The good news: A large portion of the XP-afflicted community has already started the upgrade process, with 68% of respondents in full upgrade swing and 59% of those purchasing new hardware already starting the purchase process.

MANAGING THE MIGRATION FROM WINDOWS XP

TIMING FOR XP MIGRATION

All this data begs the question: Why haven’t folks already migrated to avoid the hassle? What’s the sticking point? Is there, say, one overarching reason for why these IT pros haven’t already made their XP migra-tions a reality? Why, yes! And it’s called good ol’ money.

Over half of those upgrading haven’t done so because of cost, with time listed as the next most common reason for lollygagging. The breakdown is no surprise, especially consider-ing how tight IT budgets can be. But if budget is an issue now, it’ll only get worse with XP EOL’s legion of new financial headaches.

REASONS FOR DELAYING UPGRADES OR DECOMMISSIONING

We've already started the upgrade/purchase process

Companies planning to upgrade computer softwareCompanies planning to purchase new computers

In Nov/Dec 2013

After Microsoft no longer

supports XP

Don’t know

68%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

In Jan/Feb/Mar 2014

59%

6% 5%13%

18%

5% 7% 8% 11%

12%

23%

30%Not at all con�dent

Not very con�dent

Extremely con�dent

21%Somewhat con�dent

14%

Very con�dent

As for confidence in this plan, slightly more than half (53%) state they’re very to extremely confident that their XP computers will be migrated by April 8, 2014, while 26% state they’re not very to not at all confident that they’ll make their deadlines.

Budget limitations

55% 39% 31% 30% 30%

Lack of time Lack of resources Compatibilitywith current

software

Compatibilitywith current

business-critical apps

18 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

XP

04HOLDING OUT ‘TILTHE BITTER END

A rather large chunk of IT pros are staying put, with no plans to do much of anything as XP EOL draws nigh. In fact, a full 36% of respondents say that they’ll keep some of their XP comput-ers as-is, Microsoft’s plans to stop

supporting their cherished OS be damned. Of this group, 61% are (right-fully) concerned about security and 46% are (again, totally on point here) concerned about incompatibility with future software configurations.

Getting Over Your XP. 19

So are these concerns warranted? The data from our survey paints the picture that there’s a whole host of reasons to up-grade, though there are always exceptions. Without a pricey Custom Support Agree-ment (CSA) with Microsoft you won’t have security patches to protect you from online threats, meaning that if you’re connected to the Internet, you’re vulnerable.

But if you’re running software that oper-ates on an XP machine that never touches the Internet, then you might not need to upgrade. Or maybe you’re running discon-tinued legacy software so insanely outdated that it won’t run on modern hardware. Both cases merit an honest cost-benefit analysis for any substantial switch. But be warned, all ye who do not upgrade here: No hope of any help lies beyond April 8th, 2014!

IT PRO CONCERNS WITH MANAGING AN UNSUPPORTED PLATFORM

Security

61%

46%

33%

31%

29%

24%

4%

19%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Incompatibility with new or existing software

Incompatibility with new or existing hardware

Slow performance

Lack of support for business-critical apps

Compliance risks

Other

We don’t have concerns

(Responses from those planning to leave some Windows XP devices alone).

20 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

05WHAT’S THE TAKEAWAY?

Using XP past EOL is scary, sure, but considering the time still left, there’s no excuse to get stuck in a doomed relationship. And given the surplus of help available (Spiceworks Community, anyone?), breaking up with your XP doesn’t have to be (very) painful. As shown, tons of IT pros are well on their way to peace of mind and new love.

Whether you’re moving to Windows 7 or 8, upgrading existing hardware or buying new, the important thing is to get busy movin’ on. You’ve got plenty of time and – with the help of your peers – plenty of support on your side. All that’s left to do is make the split and migrate. So take action now! Trust us, your April 2014 self will thank you.

Getting Over Your XP. 21

You’ve just read Spiceworks’ version of data gone spicy: Our answer to humdrum data. We tackle the tech issues of today… and what’s com-ing soon to a server room near you. And we deliver it all with more originality and spice than your typical, run-of-the-mill reports.

Drawing from a user base of more than 4 million IT pros, it’s a glimpse into tech you can’t get any-where else! Data in this report comes from a Spice-works survey conducted with over 1,300 IT pros. Eighty-five percent of respondents are from North America and 15% are from EMEA.

Details on the data

INDUSTRY (TOP 12 INDUSTRIES SHOWN.) COMPANY SIZE

1-19

20-99

100-249

250-499

500-999

1,000 or more

17%

30%

26%

12%

7%8%12%

Manufacturing

11%

Healthcare

9%

Education

9%

IT ServiceProvider

8%

Non Pro�t

7%

Goverment

5%

Finance

5%

Retail

4%

Consulting

4%

Construction

3%

Engineering

2%

Software

Getting Over Your XP. 2322 Spiceworks VoIT Report: December 2013

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About Spiceworks Voice of IT®

The Spiceworks Voice of IT market insights program publishes stats, trends and opinions collected from small and medium business technology professionals that are among the more than 4 million users of Spiceworks. Survey panelists opt-in to answer questions on technology trends important to them. To find out more about our research capabilities, email insights@spiceworks.com.

About Spiceworks

Spiceworks, is the vertical network for IT that more than 4 million IT professionals use to connect with one another and over 2,700 technology brands. The company simplifies how IT professionals discover, buy and manage more than $500 billion in technology products and services each year. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Spiceworks is backed by Adams Street Partners, Tenaya Capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Shasta Ventures and Austin Ventures. For more information visit http://www.spiceworks.com.

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Voice of IT ®

This report was sponsored by CDW.

CDW is a leading provider of integrated information technology solutions in the U.S. and Canada. We help our customer base of more than 250,000 small, medium and large business, government, education and healthcare customers by delivering critical solutions to their increasingly complex IT needs. A Fortune 500 company, CDW was founded in 1984 and employs approximately 6,900 coworkers. In 2012, the company generated net sales of $10.1 billion.

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