Microsoft Cuts Windows XP Extended Support Costs for Enterprise Customers

Official support from Microsoft for Windows XP ended last week, but customers who were unable or unwilling to migrate to a newer operating system by the deadline, such as the IRS, can still pay Microsoft for extended support at a significant cost. With few enterprise customers taking the company up on its offer, however, Microsoft has decided to cut Windows XP extended support costs significantly, by up to 95 percent.

As reported by Computerworld, a large business with 10,000 Windows XP-based PCs was quoted a price of $2 million per year for continued support from Microsoft, an effective cost of $200 per PC. The company balked at the offer, deciding to take its chances following the April 8th XP support deadline. Days before that deadline, however, Microsoft reportedly returned with a new offer of only $250,000 per year, or $25 per PC, which the company readily accepted.

Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer reports that other businesses have experienced similar results, with Microsoft setting a yearly support ceiling cost of $250,000 total, although the $200 per PC price remains in effect up to that ceiling.

Research firm Gartner reports similar situations regarding its clients, and advised businesses in an April 8 research note to “to revisit your Custom Support Agreement plans for potential cost and risk reduction.”

Microsoft won’t comment on specific costs or arrangements, but a company spokesperson told ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley that the company has been working to make XP support “more affordable:”

We’ve been working with customers and partners on the migration from Windows XP since we announced in September 2007 that support for Windows XP would end on April 8. 2014. As part of this effort, we’ve made custom support more affordable so large enterprise organizations could have temporary support in place while they migrate to a more modern and secure operating system.

With a Gartner-estimated 20 to 25 percent of enterprise customers still running Windows XP, Microsoft finds itself in a complicated position. The company has long hoped to completely move on from Windows XP, and doesn’t want to give small businesses and consumers the impression the operating system is still supported, but it also can’t ignore the hundreds of millions of XP-based systems still running online. Should a future security threat result in a significant privacy breach or economic loss, blame and public ire will be focused exclusively on Microsoft, despite the years spent by the company warning customers of XP’s eventual retirement.

But a more affordable extended support plan may be the only reasonable solution. At $200 per PC, even with a reported total cap of $250,000, only large businesses will be able to take advantage of the offer. And for those that do, Microsoft requires that extended support customers prepare migration plans with quarterly deployment milestones and project completion dates. By bringing more large businesses into the fold, therefore, Microsoft can not only help prevent the spread of future XP security vulnerabilities, it can also facilitate its customers’ migration to newer versions of Windows.

For consumers and small businesses, however, the advice remains the same: get off of Windows XP. Newer versions of Windows are available at a variety of price points, and free operating systems exist as an alternative. There may be no Windows XP threats at the moment, but unless you have $250,000, Microsoft won’t be there to help you when threats arise.