Roadblocks ahead as companies delay Windows XP migration

Dell has released its top five migration roadblocks facing companies across the world, as support for Windows XP nears the end.

Yet despite such a slow uptake, the software company believes it is essential for companies to make the migration to Windows 7/8/8.1 simple and efficient.

According to a recent survey sponsored by Dell, companies of all sizes are grappling with a host of migration issues and concerns.

A poll of nearly 500 IT professionals with responsibility for corporate desktops and laptops at global organisations revealed that 47 percent still haven’t completed their migrations off Windows XP.

As industry averages for the time needed to complete an OS migration range between 12 to 24 months, it’s clear that many in-process migrations won’t be completed before Microsoft’s April 2014 end-of-support deadline for Windows XP.

“Migrations are among the potentially most disruptive, costly and risky IT endeavors, which is why so many organisations have delayed moving off Windows XP," says David Kloba, GM Endpoint Systems Management, Dell.

When support ends, Kloba believes organisations still running Windows XP will face increasing security risks and management overhead.

According to those polled, the top five migration roadblocks are:

1. Application compatibility

2. Available time to perform migration/conflicts with other IT initiatives

3. User training and support

4. Lost user productivity

5. Issues with repackaging, remediating and deploying applications

Kloba says Dell relies on a phased approach and the following five best practices to help customers clear the highest hurdles to migration success:

1. Create and maintain a complete, updated inventory of all hardware, applications and users

2. Rationalize content so migrations only entail what is actually used and necessary

3. Application testing, remediation and repackaging

4. Automate system and user content migration

5. Ongoing management: ease system lifecycle management

For more information on how best to migrate from Windows XP, click here

Has your company delayed migrating? Tell us why in the comments below