Newton’s third law of physics holds that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The recent global IT outage, impacting roughly 8.5 million devices running older variants of Windows, is no exception. The two most immediate impacts will be on how applications of any kind are updated and, in the event of an adverse outcome, how IT incidents are managed. More than a few managed service providers (MSPs) gallantly helped customers recover. Now, in the wake of the crisis, just about every organization is taking a second look at how they manage software updates.
Enhancing incident management
It’s fair to note that many organizations took a long time to recover. This is because no one knew for sure what to do when devices went offline. In these cases, there simply wasn’t a set of best incident management practices that had become part of the IT organization’s muscle memory. Those who had a plan in place generally fared better.
One of the lessons to be learned here is that there is an opportunity for MSPs to offer organizations incident management services to deal with any similar crises that may occur. For instance, addressing the issue of older Windows versions that need an upgrade.
Many organizations run older versions of Windows because they built applications in some way that were not easily upgradable to, for example, Windows 10 or 11. Microsoft has scheduled Windows 10 for end of life (EOL) in October of 2025. Many organizations might now be finally willing to consider Windows 11.
Mitigating legacy software issues through Windows 11 adoption
A recent analysis of more than 750,000 enterprise Windows endpoint devices found only 18 percent are running Windows 11. Of the devices yet to migrate, 88 percent could be migrated to Windows 11. Only 11 percent would need to be fully replaced.
However, Windows 11 does require specific device features and system requirements. This is including a 64-bit CPU, Secure Boot, and a TPM 2.0 chip, to ensure security and performance. That issue has tended to slow adoption more broadly.
Adoption of Windows 11, theoretically at least, should get a boost following the arrival of PCs that include neural processing units (NPUs) that optimize the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. How many of those PCs might replace existing Windows systems is hard to say. However, organizations are now much more aware of the issues that can arise when trying to run and maintain legacy applications.
Seizing the moment
The recent outage may become one of the most infamous events in IT history. Many organizations may also realize that they are only one or two steps removed from experiencing a similar potential catastrophe. As a result, there arguably might be no better time than the present for MSPs to have a conversation with those customers that everyone involved knows is long overdue.
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