Microsoft has announced that it will end its support of Windows XP and Office 2003 on April 8, 2014. For companies running these applications, the end of support has the potential to impact critical business processes with security and efficiency risks; compliance and liability issues; and costly, unnecessary downtime.

There will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates for Windows XP and Office 2003 after April 8, 2014, according to Microsoft. Running these applications in your environment after that date can expose your company to potential risks in the following ways:

Security: Unsupported and unpatched environments are more vulnerable to security risks.

Compliance/Liability: The security risks of running unsupported applications can result in an officially recognized control failure by an internal or external audit body, leading to suspension of certifications, as well as public notification of the organization’s inability to maintain its systems and customer information.

Support: Independent software vendors are unlikely to support new versions of applications on Windows XP, according to a recent industry report from Gartner Research, and it may stifle access to hardware innovation. Most PC hardware manufacturers will stop supporting Windows XP on the majority of their new PC models, Gartner Research also noted.

Site2 can help you mitigate these risks and develop a cost-effective plan to keep your business running securely and efficiently. Our team will perform an application audit to inventory your enterprise applications and identify your business needs. We will then provide options for migrating your business-critical applications to new software or our hosted and virtual apps.

According to Microsoft, if your organization has not started the migration, “you are late.” Contact us today to schedule an analysis and let us develop a migration plan that keeps your business up and running safely.