What is Windows 10 End of Support?

Whilst this sounds dramatic, it’s not far from the reality facing partner businesses and their thousands of New Zealand end customers in 15 months’ time. Over 50% of devices in New Zealand are ineligible to upgrade to Windows 11 and need to be refreshed to avoid the looming risks of end of support for Windows 10, but that’s not even the scariest bit.

Understanding End of Support

Before we unpack the numbers (the scary bit), it’s important to understand what end of support is and why we all need to care. End of support for Windows 10 means Microsoft will no longer provide regular security updates or technical support and a small number of applications that rely on the latest Microsoft security updates to function, may run into some issues. We also need to keep in mind that many corporate policies mandate the running of supported operating systems, but more on that later.

Doing the math on the New Zealand situation (the scary bit)

As an industry we collectively sell around 650,000 - 700,000 new devices into the corporate and commercial segment each year. And therein lies the challenge facing our industry. We have approximately 16 months to refresh 600,000 devices, but the capacity of our market, and of our vendors, is, at a stretch, 1M devices per annum. All signals are clearly pointing to an impending stock shortage as the New Zealand market races to move to compliant and secure modern devices.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be a race. The partners and end-customers who are thinking about Windows 10 end of support now, instead of in 12 months’ time, have access to plentiful stock, choice and time to complete their upgrades. The choice to refresh devices is not merely a matter of staying current; it's a strategic move to safeguard operations, enhance security, and ensure a competitive edge, particularly as Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to permeate daily life and business practices

What’s the message you need to deliver to your customers?

There’s two; security and productivity.

The most important messages to deliver is security. Devices that are not upgraded to Windows 11, or refreshed, will no longer be running a supported version of Windows. The word supported, is critical. Many cybersecurity policies mandate that every device in the environment must be running a supported version of the chosen operating system. If they’re not, it could potentially void the policy for the entire organisation.

Then, there’s the productivity angle. Refreshing to a modern device unlocks a whole new world of possibilities, particularly if your end-customers have started leveraging the power of AI. However, not every user in every business will need a cutting-edge device with edge processing capabilities thanks to the inclusion of a NPU (Neural Processing Unit), but they will need a Windows 11 device that offers the latest security features.

Discover the three types of devices you need to consider here.