As Windows 7 ends, opportunity awaits for businesses

As Windows 7 nears its “expiration date” of January 2020, users face two options: Continue using an outdated and malware-prone operating system or upgrade to a newer version that offers security patches and regular updates. Read more about the Windows 7 end of life (EOL) here.

Your organization has likely developed or assimilated protocols and processes to help maximize productivity and profitability. Those might include anything from a production assembly line to information sharing software to HR policies. Just about everything a successful business does is geared toward helping improve its standing and bottom line. System upgrades should be viewed no differently.

The Windows 7 EOL has actually presented an opportunity for you to create uniform policies and protocol for your business’s technological components. We recommend working with an IT support consultant like Kraft Technology Group (KTG) to review, test, and document your processes. An experienced team of IT professionals will identify and learn the unique aspects of your system, goals, and workforce needs. These things will be used to help update/migrate your business systems and create a blueprint for future upgrades.

Benefits

Rethinking Windows: It’s all too clear that future Windows upgrades are already being planned. And just as Windows 7 is effectively going the way of the dinosaur in 2020, its replacement will surely go extinct as well. Rather than waiting to react every time an announcement is made, you can rethink Windows as ongoing service — not just a product. This means empowering your IT support team to maintain a focus on rollouts, tool management, and deployment in a highly streamlined fashion. Having that blueprint means formerly onerous tasks can occur seamlessly and in a shorter timeframe.

IT support agility: A major migration from Windows 7 is likely to be a time-consuming task. Part of the reason is that your outfit is basically starting fresh. Because your KTG IT support technicians will already be intimately familiar with your organization, they can create a blueprint for future upgrades that eliminates that start-from-scratch mentality and allows them the flexibility to act decisively moving forward.

Ongoing testing: Once your IT team has concluded its testing measures for the Windows 7 EOL migration, it’s important to craft a post-mortem summary of challenges and solutions. This will help inform your team members about what to anticipate, which can improve their ability to adapt and overcome.

Staying focused on your business: One of the other expected benefits of moving to Windows 10 is that it allows IT technicians to implement updates to a variety of devices simultaneously. This is expected to improve efficiency by limiting the time spent on tasks that are not directly related to your business’ profit-earning activities.

Why businesses put off Windows 10

It may seem like a no-brainer to make the switch, but some entities may still resist the change for a variety of reasons, including:

The download is large — nearly 3 gigabytes — making it very difficult on machines that have slow connections or data caps.

Solution: The best alternative in these cases is to acquire a Windows 10 ISO image on a DVD or a USB drive downloaded by someone else. It is legal to do so as long as it’s installed with a legitimate authorization key. Just be sure it’s coming from a trustworthy source.

Older computers may not meet the Windows 10 hardware requirements.

Solution: An inexpensive RAM upgrade may be all that is needed. If an upgrade isn’t possible, it may be time to get new computers; the cost savings of continuing to run on an old machine doesn’t justify the risk of running old software. And delaying the inevitable could prove to be even more expensive if you do fall victim to an exploit of Windows 7.

While the EOL for Windows 7 is just around the corner, there’s still time to make an orderly transition. Organizations that have not already begun the process of migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or another suitable option are strongly advised to contact an IT support consultant like KTG as soon as possible. Keeping computer systems up to date and secure is a complex task, but we can help. Please contact us if you’d like to learn more.

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