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I was going post on the thread that is closed, there's more to this than meets the eye. Only establishments that have taken out a Micro$oft Premier Support Contract are eligible for the extended XP support. Those that haven't a contract in place (and that includes organisations that have invested heavily in a Micro$oft licence EA/EWA have to buy into a premier Support Contract first. Micro$oft have not become generous as some thought, I got the warning on a old desktop running XP I have about support ending.:mad:
[B][SIZE="4"]UK Government pays Microsoft £5.5m to extend Windows XP support for 1[/SIZE][/B]
UK Government pays Microsoft £5.5m to extend Windows XP support for 1 year
The UK government is paying Microsoft £5.5m of taxpayers' money to extend support for the out-of-date Windows XP operating system
The government has signed a deal with Microsoft to provide Windows XP support and security updates across the whole UK public sector for 12 months after commercial support for the operating system ends on 8 April 2014.
The agreement is worth £5.548 million, and covers 'critical' and 'important' security updates for Windows XP, as well as Office 2003 and Exchange 2003, which also go out of support next Tuesday.
The deal has been negotiated by the new Crown Commercial Service (CCS), set up within the Cabinet Office to act as a single purchasing operation for the public sector. The extended support is available to all of central and local government, charities, schools and the NHS.
“This is an important deal, which will provide continuity for all eligible government and public sector organisations while they migrate on to alternative operating systems," said Rob Wilmot, crown representative for software at CCS.
"It is an excellent example of collaborative purchasing and demonstrates Crown Commercial Service’s new joined-up approach to commercial arrangements to achieve best value for the taxpayer.”
CCS claims the contract has saved in excess of £20 million, compared with individual departments negotiating their own deals. However, this expense could have been avoided all together if public sector organisations had upgraded their computers to a more modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or Windows 8, before the deadline.
Microsoft first announced the end-of-support date for Windows XP in 2007, so the government has had around seven years to prepare for the deadline. The company’s list price for one year’s custom Windows XP support is $200 per desktop, suggesting that there are over 200,000 computers in the public sector still running Windows XP.
The end of commercial support for Windows XP does not mean it will stop working, simply that Microsoft will stop releasing security patches for the operating system, so any security holes that are discovered after that time will be vulnerable to exploits and malware.
Microsoft has previously warned that the end of Windows XP support will be a starting pistol for hackers, who will scour new updates for any vulnerabilities that could also apply to older versions.
This is why it is so important for organisations that still run Windows XP and deal with sensitive data to pay for continued support – just one vulnerable machine could potentially put an entire network at risk. However it is a stop-gap rather than a permanent solution, and public sector organisations will ultimately still have to pay to upgrade to a newer operating system further down the line.
When asked why the upgrade has not already happened, CCS said that migration can be a "complex and costly process", and that the main priority for public sector organisations is "to ensure a seamless transition".
The CCS has stipulated that any public sector body wishing to take advantage of the extended support must have a plan in place to move off Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 within a year. However, Microsoft estimates that the average large-scale upgrade takes around 18 months.
"Plans are already in place for organisations to migrate to other operating systems over the next 12 months. It is anticipated that the majority will have completed upgrades by April 2015," a Cabinet Office spokesperson stated.
Over a quarter of the world’s desktops and laptops still run Windows XP – 27.69 per cent on 31 March 2014 and reports suggest that over three quarters of UK organisations are still running the 12 year-old operating system somewhere in their IT estate.
Currently, 85 per cent of NHS computers run on Windows XP, as well as 95 per cent of the world's ATM machines.
[img]http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2014-04/07/133243695_13968573043471n.jpg[/img]
Photo taken on April 7, 2014 shows the shutdown interface of Windows XP, in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Microsoft announced earlier that it will stop providing technical assistance for Windows XP after April 8, and computers will still work but they might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses.
[B][SIZE="4"]UK Government pays Microsoft £5.5m to extend Windows XP support for 1[/SIZE][/B]
UK Government pays Microsoft £5.5m to extend Windows XP support for 1 year
The UK government is paying Microsoft £5.5m of taxpayers' money to extend support for the out-of-date Windows XP operating system
The government has signed a deal with Microsoft to provide Windows XP support and security updates across the whole UK public sector for 12 months after commercial support for the operating system ends on 8 April 2014.
The agreement is worth £5.548 million, and covers 'critical' and 'important' security updates for Windows XP, as well as Office 2003 and Exchange 2003, which also go out of support next Tuesday.
The deal has been negotiated by the new Crown Commercial Service (CCS), set up within the Cabinet Office to act as a single purchasing operation for the public sector. The extended support is available to all of central and local government, charities, schools and the NHS.
“This is an important deal, which will provide continuity for all eligible government and public sector organisations while they migrate on to alternative operating systems," said Rob Wilmot, crown representative for software at CCS.
"It is an excellent example of collaborative purchasing and demonstrates Crown Commercial Service’s new joined-up approach to commercial arrangements to achieve best value for the taxpayer.”
CCS claims the contract has saved in excess of £20 million, compared with individual departments negotiating their own deals. However, this expense could have been avoided all together if public sector organisations had upgraded their computers to a more modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or Windows 8, before the deadline.
Microsoft first announced the end-of-support date for Windows XP in 2007, so the government has had around seven years to prepare for the deadline. The company’s list price for one year’s custom Windows XP support is $200 per desktop, suggesting that there are over 200,000 computers in the public sector still running Windows XP.
The end of commercial support for Windows XP does not mean it will stop working, simply that Microsoft will stop releasing security patches for the operating system, so any security holes that are discovered after that time will be vulnerable to exploits and malware.
Microsoft has previously warned that the end of Windows XP support will be a starting pistol for hackers, who will scour new updates for any vulnerabilities that could also apply to older versions.
This is why it is so important for organisations that still run Windows XP and deal with sensitive data to pay for continued support – just one vulnerable machine could potentially put an entire network at risk. However it is a stop-gap rather than a permanent solution, and public sector organisations will ultimately still have to pay to upgrade to a newer operating system further down the line.
When asked why the upgrade has not already happened, CCS said that migration can be a "complex and costly process", and that the main priority for public sector organisations is "to ensure a seamless transition".
The CCS has stipulated that any public sector body wishing to take advantage of the extended support must have a plan in place to move off Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 within a year. However, Microsoft estimates that the average large-scale upgrade takes around 18 months.
"Plans are already in place for organisations to migrate to other operating systems over the next 12 months. It is anticipated that the majority will have completed upgrades by April 2015," a Cabinet Office spokesperson stated.
Over a quarter of the world’s desktops and laptops still run Windows XP – 27.69 per cent on 31 March 2014 and reports suggest that over three quarters of UK organisations are still running the 12 year-old operating system somewhere in their IT estate.
Currently, 85 per cent of NHS computers run on Windows XP, as well as 95 per cent of the world's ATM machines.
[img]http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2014-04/07/133243695_13968573043471n.jpg[/img]
Photo taken on April 7, 2014 shows the shutdown interface of Windows XP, in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Microsoft announced earlier that it will stop providing technical assistance for Windows XP after April 8, and computers will still work but they might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses.
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