No Pain. So what do I gain by migrating?

Not migrating to Windows 10 can be an easy argument to make. Your systems are running smoothly and your technical issues are minimal. Why rock the boat?

I hear you. You’ve done your due diligence and determined that, in addition to purchasing new licenses for Windows 10, you will also need to upgrade some of your older hardware and software to accommodate the migration. The costs keep piling up and, on top of it all, you are using business critical legacy software that you just aren’t confident will work on a new system. You need the information it contains, aren’t sure how you would transfer it, and don’t want to teach your employees a new way to do things. It feels like you are creating a hassle and a pain rather than solving one.

So you make the choice not to migrate. This makes perfect sense….in a vacuum. This is a case of perceived fear versus actual fear. The perceived fear is that you are wasting money and effort to fix something that is working just fine. The reality is this- your potential hassle, cost, and burden down the road will be much greater by postponing or ignoring end of life (EOL) warnings. It may seem like a hard pill to swallow, but I urge you to take on that little bit of pain now to avoid something far more severe down the line.

Drilling into the Migration

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Think of EOL like your teeth. You go to the dentist for a routine checkup and find out that you have a cavity. You didn’t have any pain but the x-ray clearly shows that there is a problem. What do you do? You basically have two choices.

Option one: get a filling. You need to make another appointment with the dentist, perhaps miss another morning of work, and go through the pains of the needles, noises, and after effects of numbing. It is a bit of a hassle, but it’s what an expert recommended. You trust the dentist, and their years of education, to steer you in the best direction that leads to the most optimistic future. In the end you are happy knowing that, after that extra procedure, most of your concerns with that tooth are a thing of the past. In this case, you made the decision that, regardless of the fact that you experienced no pain, this was the right thing to do.

Your other option is to wait it out. After all, with no symptoms and no pain, why spend the money? So you go on living your life. Everything is going great until one day you feel this stabbing pain in your mouth. Maybe you just bit down on something wrong. No such luck. The pain ensues. At first it is when you eat and eventually it is a constant. Then you notice the abscess. It’s time to make that dentist appointment after all. Following the initial shaming, the dentist informs you that you need a root canal and that the infection has started to cause some bone loss so there may be complications. Now you are in for antibiotics and several trips to the endodontist and dentist. Even with good insurance you are in for a hefty bill likely three or more times the cost of the originally prescribed filling.

We have all made choice number two. It comes with regrets, but hopefully as a learning experience. Usually we make the choice to wait based on three fundamentals: time, hassle, and money. The truth is, in the end, that procrastination leads to additional downtime and far greater costs. Windows 7 is your cavity and the time to act is now.

What is the Windows 7 root canal?

Although we don’t know exactly what this will be, there is a solid history of attacks on Microsoft software that is no longer supported. None of it is good. These are the types of attacks that have crippled or shuttered businesses of every size, with rippling effects throughout the world. Malware and ransomware attacks have targeted End Of Life as they know two things. One being the popularity of the systems, and two being that people inherently do not like change. Statistics say that a majority of users do not prepare and move on from these operating systems before an attack and become targets, and thus victims. Windows 7 will be the same. With nearly 50% of users stalling their migrations, we are primed for another WannaCry or NotPetya. The potential downtime for your company and anyone who relies on your services will be massive.

Windows 7 is Long in the Tooth

I understand. Your business is operational and you do not feel any pain. The fact is that currently you have a safety net with Microsoft. With that net gone in January of 2020, you are on your own. Without patches and updates, you become a target of hackers. This will not get better on its own and time is not on your side. Get your systems in order and your files secure. In the long run, you’ll stop showing your teeth and just smile.

Just like you should with a dentist- Trust the experts!

Contact us today to discuss your migration plans.