The United Kingdom NHS (National Health Service) is still highly dependent on Windows 7, but things will change soon as the organization will be finally upgrading to Windows 10. In February, we reported that the NHS has only 1 percent and 3 percent of its systems on Windows 10 but it appears that the organization is ready to upgrade all of its systems to Microsoft’s latest OS.
While Microsoft is still releasing updates and security patches for Windows 7, the operating system is not as secure as Windows 10 and it will also reach the end of life in January 2020. Needless to say, there are a couple of reasons why the NHS should migrate to Windows 10 as soon as possible.
First and foremost, Windows 7 will no longer receive any updates and patches in 2020. Considering that NHS is a big organization, it needs more time to complete the upgrade to Windows 10 operating system and work with Microsoft to deal with the possible bugs. NHS is expected to accelerate the migration to Windows 10 in near future.
“We know cyber attacks are a growing threat, so it is vital our health and care organisations have secure systems which patients trust,” Jeremy Hunt, the Health and Social Care Secretary said.
Windows 7 has already caused major trouble to the NHS previously, and it certainly makes sense for the organization to upgrade to Windows 10. Needless to say, the migration process is complex as the organization could be using software incompatible with Microsoft’s platform.
Windows 10 is more secure than Windows 7, and Microsoft’s latest desktop OS was immune to the WannaCry attacks.
“We have been building the capability of NHS systems over a number of years, but there is always more to do to future-proof our NHS as far as reasonably possible against this threat. This new technology will ensure the NHS can use the latest and most resilient software available – something the public rightly expect,” he added.
Earlier this year, DH reported that 1 percent systems used by acute trusts and 3 percent used by mental health trusts are running Windows 10. Windows 7 is on 74 percent and 76 percent of the systems respectively.
NHS has already confirmed that it’ll complete the upgrade to Windows 10 before the end of support lands for Windows 7. The organization is working with Microsoft to reduce compatibility issues. Judging from the cooperation between Microsoft and NHS, there’s a chance that the migration will complete before the deadline and fewer challenges will be encountered.
