The death of Windows 7: the funeral is over... what now?

It may feel as though this date has been a very long time coming, but Windows 7 end of life is finally here. Unless you're a business or enterprise customer willing to pay, there will be no more updates and no more support.

Enterprise content delivery network firm Kollective held a funeral for the elderly operating system. Its research shows that in the US 40 percent of business are still using Windows 7, while in the UK the figure stands at 66 percent. Kollective warns that sticking with Windows 7 is dangerous, and outlines what the hold-outs need to consider.

See also:

• Laplink makes it easy to switch to Windows 10 with its Windows 7 Migration Kit
• Windows 7 users will still get updates to Microsoft Security Essentials when the OS is out of support
• Microsoft is about to start aggressively advertising Windows 10 to Windows 7 stragglers

Noting that every remaining Windows 7 device is a potential target for hackers, ransomware and cyber attacks, Kollective says there are three potential routes for business and enterprises to go down -- the very worst of which is continuing to use Windows 7 beyond the end of life.

The second option is to pay for extended support. Microsoft will continue to support Windows 7 for up to three years for those willing to pay. But for companies with large number of computers, this could end up being astronomically expensive over time.

Kollective's research suggests that over half of businesses are yet to complete migration, and this could prove dangerous. Of course, Kollective's interest in migrating businesses and enterprises to Windows 10 is not entirely altruistic -- the company has a solution to sell. It offers a Software-Defined Enterprise Content Delivery Network (SD ECDN) which it says can help to dramatically simplify and speed up the rollout of Windows 10.

Kollective explains:

Kollective for ConfigMgr which leverages the powerful Kollective ECDN agent's intelligent mesh peering will evenly distribute bandwidth to ensure fast delivery of OS updates and vital security patches. The greater the number of peers across a complex distributed enterprise, the more efficient content delivery becomes -- turning even legacy hardware, into intelligent edge devices.

With Kollective for ConfigMgr, your business can maximize the speed of software distribution, streamline Windows 10 migration and future proof against increasing updates. This can all be achieved without a costly overhaul to the organization's IT and network infrastructure. Migrate to Windows 10 in a matter of days with Kollective for ConfigMgr.

This is not the only company seeking to cash in on the death of Windows 7. Laplink recently started to offer its Windows 7 Migration Kit at a reduced price too, hoping that Windows 7 stragglers will hand over some cash in the panic to get away from an unsupported operating system.

Image credit: Kollective