The year 2020 is still far off in the future, however, research firm Gartner is already urging companies to prepare for the end of Windows 7.
The company justified its advice by pointing out that the time frame between the possible release of the next version of Windows and the end of support for Windows 7 is similar to the amount of time it took for Windows XP support to expire.
In a blog post, Gartner urged companies to prepare early to avoid the rush that came with expiration of support for Windows XP.
"Microsoft recently ended support for Windows XP and even though the end date was set in 2007 based on a life cycle support policy Microsoft introduced in 2004, many organizations were not able to completely eliminate the OS by the deadline. Nearly a quarter of PCs in organizations were still running Windows XP after support ended, leaving IT to figure out how to secure Windows XP and/or find funding to do so," Gartner Research Vice President Stephen Kleynhans said.
Kleynhans estimates that Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 on January 2, 2020. He called on companies to upgrade to Windows 8, which Microsoft plans to support until 2023. Kleynhans said that the newer version of the OS makes it easier to migrate because it provides an easier way to update the software. Windows 8 has already had two significant updates since it was released 18 months ago.
If companies heed Gartner's advice, it may prevent the chaos that was caused by the end of support for Windows XP. When Microsoft cut off the software last April, many companies still used the 12-year-old operating system in spite of the risks of cyberattacks.
The most affected sector was the banking industry. As the April 8 cut-off for Windows XP support approached, banks scrambled to replace 95% of ATMs in the United States that were still running on the operating system. Financial institutions were so unprepared that they bought special services from Microsoft to extend support for the old operating system while they replaced their ATM machines. One of the companies that made a special deal with Microsoft was JP Morgan, which bought a service extension for one year as it upgraded its Chase ATMs to Windows 7.
