Jonah Bennett wonders why the U. S. Navy is paying Microsoft $9 million to support its Windows XP systems:
The Navy plans to eventually transfer away from outdated software, but in the meantime, the service is willing to spend more than $9 million dollars to maintain Windows XP on 100,000 workstations.What do you think?
Transition efforts to a new operating system kicked off in 2013, but two years wasn’t long enough to complete the process, leading the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to sign a contract with Microsoft to the tune of $9,149,000 dollars to keep old operating systems alive, The Hill reports. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert issued a directive called “Windows XP Eradication Efforts†last year, detailing best practices for weaning the Navy off the platform.What do you think?
Over time, the contract may expand to $30.8 million dollars, which would stretch the lifespan of the XP systems up until 2017, even though Microsoft considers the product obsolete. The contract also includes support for Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003.
It’s easy to understand if you do the math. The old XP workstations will almost undoubtedly not support Windows 7 let alone something more recent. Even if it’s possible upgrading them will probably cost about the same as a new system. 100,000 systems X an average of $400 per system is $40 million. Even if the eventual cost of the contract is $30 million they’re still saving money.
Also, keep in mind that it’s harder than it should be for them to get a good deal. Often, they have to buy systems that are certified “Made In America”, which adds a few hundred dollars to the cost of even systems made by Dell.
Most of the time, installing, wiring, and configuring these systems are done by contractors. Assume 2 hours of contractor time at $150/hour, about $300.
If you’re installing new computer models in a classified or otherwise controlled space, then the setup and configuration get harder, and your choices get more limited. And you have more paperwork, too, and more inspections of the computers.
The price I used for my back-of-the-envelope calculation was the absolute rock-bottom price. The more practical estimate would be $1,500-$2,000 each. Microsoft’s support contract is a bargain under the circumstances.
The real question is why are they (and large companies, generally) on the Microsoft treadmill.
There are training costs. If any documents and procedures have explicit references to Windows XP, they need to be revised. Any peripherals that do not have drivers available would need to be replaced. Any legacy applications that cannot run in a higher version would need to be replaced or re-written. (Windows 7 has XP Mode, but it was dropped in Windows 8.)
For something mission critical, Windows XP has been on a shakedown cruise for 14 years. By this time, almost all of the bugs are known, and they have been fixed or workarounds developed. Because it is a stable platform, the workarounds will have very little chance of anything causing them to stop working.
That’s undoubtedly a critical point. Also, it’s possible that there aren’t any upgrades available for the legacy hardware and software presently being used.
I had thought this was a problem mostly limited to government, but the more I learn it seems to be endemic in the private sector also.
Steve
XP was a good operating system although most machines were 32 bit rather than 64. When Windows 8 was introduced I bought both a new desk top and laptop while Dell still had Windows 7 machines available and plan to stick with 7 as long as I can.