At least one European government fails to migrate to Windows 10 in time, and has to pay the price-- Handelsblatt reports the German government faces an €800000 bill in order to secure 33000 Windows 7 machines still in use.
According to the report, the German government is currently undergoing migration to Windows 10, but failed to upgrade all machines in time. In fact, 20000 of the 85000 PCs in use by the Berlin local government still run on Windows 7. Windows 7 support ended last week, specifically on 15 January 2020, and it means no more patches, updates or security updates, making machines running on the OS particularly vulnerable to cybercriminals.
That said, one can mitigate the risks involved with running a Windows 7 machine in 2020... for a price. Extended Windows 7 Enterprise support costs around $25 per machine for big businesses, but it doubles to $50 in 2021 and doubles yet again to $100 in 2022. The costs are higher for smaller firms, since support starts at $50 per machine before doubling in the following year. The costs vary according to the amount of PCs in use, and some larger firms can negotiate discounts.
One has to keep in mind Microsoft Extended Security Updates (ESU) are available solely to large businesses, and security experts advise enterprises to migrate to Windows 10 in order to cut down both costs and risks.
Go Federal Government Pays almost 1 million Euros for Outdated Microsoft OS (Handelsblatt)
