By Kathy Gibson – There are many good reasons for companies to regularly refresh and update their personal computer (PC) fleets: getting access to the latest hardware innovations with the associated speed and performance gains; being able to run newer applications with updated features; and more.
This year, there is another – and very compelling – reason: millions of PC users risk being left out in the cold when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10 on 14 October.
For companies that have been putting off the inevitability of a major PC refresh cycle, this date is a hard deadline that they simply cannot afford to miss.
According to Trish Simpson, Windows Pro business development manager at Axiz, so far South African enterprises and resellers have not been treating the looming end-of-life with the urgency it deserves.
“We have been talking about the need for a device refresh for well over a year now,” Simpson says. “Companies that have been putting it off find themselves with very little room to manoeuvre, with the end-of-support block coming closer every week.”
Yes, companies that haven’t updated their operating system to Windows 11 will still be able to run Windows 10, and could even access support for it – but they may balk at the cost.
There’s an actual monetary cost for this support, which is not insignificant. After 15 October, companies that want to receive security fixes and patches for their Windows 10 devices will have to cough up $60 per year, per device. If they are still running the outdated operating system after one year, the cost goes up to $120 per year per device – then up to $240 in year three. After that, they are on their own.
And they won’t even get updates or features for this high subscription: the rate covers just patches and fixes.
At the same time, Gerald Meyer, Microsoft technical device business development manager at Axiz, warns that Microsoft applications will become more cumbersome to run on Windows 10, running slower and slower to the point where users will battle to access them at all.
If this isn’t enough to convince companies to upgrade before the 14 October deadline, usability and security are far more worrying concerns.
“You need to remember that Windows 10 Pro was first launched in 2015,” Simpson explains. “That was 10 years ago, when there was no hybrid working and the way we use online apps or cloud computing was very different.
“Add to this the fact that most companies last upgraded in the early days of the Covid pandemic. This means the current fleet of devices is mostly five years or more older, and they are having to operate in an environment that’s very different from what they were designed for.”
One of the key differentiators between older machines and the latest devices is zero-trust in the form of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) V2 chip, which builds security features into the hardware; and Microsoft Defender software.
And, for Simpson, this is the most pressing reason for companies to upgrade their PCs.
“The devices you get today are simply more secure,” she says. “Companies spend a lot of time and money securing their systems, but the end user device is where the vulnerabilities happen. So they need to ensure their users are working on the most secure devices possible – and that these are not the five- or more-years old PCs with no TPM chip, running Windows 10 Pro from 2015.
“People really need to migrate to better and more secure devices, with an operating system that is more secure, easier to use, and more in tune with the way we work and do business today.”
The danger is real, with the rate of cybersecurity threats increasing all the time. Meyer points out that 87% of companies experienced at least one attack in the past two years.
At the same time, more than 70% of business leaders believe device quality needs improvement within the hybrid working environment.
With just over half a year to go until 14 October, Simpson cannot stress the urgency of the messaging.
“We have been beating this data to death, and we are quickly running out of time,” she says. “Companies are starting to become aware of the urgency, but are still not moving as quickly as they should. We are saying to them: the time is now, you cannot kick the can down the road any longer.”
From a purely software perspective, the upgrade to Windows 11 is fairly painless and completely free.
Most Windows 10 applications will run on Windows 11 with no changes, with Microsoft and its AppSure programme standing ready to help with migrating the fewer than 1% of existing apps that may cause issues.
The elephant in the room is the many PCs still out there that won’t be able to support Windows 11.
What resellers need to help their end user customer with is making sure that their devices can be upgraded, Simpson says.
“South African companies are currently running about 2,1-million PCs that are more than five years old, and cannot be upgraded to Windows 10,” she explains.“This creates a massive opportunity for resellers, but with it taking an average of 440 days for even mid-size deployments, they need to be having the conversation with their customers now.”
Working with distributors and vendors, reseller partners should be actively identifying the opportunities within their customer base.
They should be helping them to understand what is in their device estate and identifying what needs to be replaced or updated; and helping them in formulating a migration plan.
Benefits of upgrading
Although the Windows 10 end-of-life and enhanced features in Windows 11 are compelling reasons to upgrade, Simpson points out that only the newest devices will give companies access to new artificial intelligence (AI) features.
“We have access to wonderful new AI devices that were not around even a year ago,” she points out.
“AI is here, and it is going to stay, so if you are replacing PCs now, you want to ensure that they have longevity for the next few years. The newest PCs now include a neural processing unit (NPU) alongside the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) to handle AI more efficiently.”
In addition, Microsoft’s CoPilot+PC is quickly becoming more mainstream, offering fast AI processing and a longer battery life.
This is why we are seeing a significant growth in AI PC adoption, she says, with 53% of enterprises and 39% of SMBs being early adopters.
“The technology evolution we are living through is tremendously exciting,” Simpson says. “For AI to become widely used, we need to democratise it, and this starts with making sure users have the devices that let them use it to enhance their lives.”
Resellers can leverage the opportunity by being “trusted advisors to their end customers”, adds Meyer. As such, they can assist with customer migration, offering best of breed AI devices that offer improved productivity; and securing themselves an incremental pipeline for future business.