Race for free Windows 10 will create MSP windfall

Following the news that the new Windows 10 update will be free for a year, Ashley Leonard, president and CEO of Verismic, shares how he thinks this will affect managed service providers.

The latest figures from Netmarketshare suggest usage of the XP platform is dropping. Market share was 18.93 per cent in January 2015, down from 26.29 per cent in April 14.

OS upgrades to Windows 7 will be common in 2015 as customers come to realise support for XP has been stripped away, leaving them adrift.

Windows 8/8.1 has not been popular with all users, which could also prompt those XP and 7 users to actually jump to Windows 10. For a limited time only, one year, Microsoft has also said 10 will be a free upgrade, which makes this upgrade jump even more likely.

In any scenario, a flow of OS upgrades stretches IT resources not just through OS rollout, but through testing, fixing, repackaging and preparing existing applications for the new environment. It really is no small feat deploying applications.

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About the author Ashley Leonard, President and CEO of Verismic.