Majority of local authorities are still running on Windows 7, shows research

Councils are relying on legacy systems

Most local authorities across the UK are still relying on ageing Windows 7 systems, according to research published this week.

After conducting a freedom of information request, technology firm Cloudhouse discovered that 83 per cent of machines used by British councils are based on Windows 7.

Despite the fact that 97 per cent of councils are aware that support for Windows 7 will end in January 2020, 17 per cent of them are yet to introduce migration plans.

If they don't make the move to Windows 10 by this deadline, more than 128,000 council machines could be plagued by serious security vulnerabilities.

This research, which consists of responses from 317 councils, shows that councils are relying on legacy operating systems and are not preparing for the future.

Microsoft recently confirmed that it'll end support for Windows 7 after January 4th, 2020, so councils only have two years to upgrade to a newer operating system.

Cloudhouse said the "natural progression" for firms would be to upgrade to Windows 10, but it claims that this can be time-consuming and difficult for IT professionals.

The natural progression away from Windows 7 is to Windows 10, but the migration between the two operating systems can be time-consuming and difficult for IT teams.

Shockingly, only 1 per cent of councils have successfully migrated to Windows 10, and 40 per cent said the biggest challenge is trying to migrate apps to Windows 10.

Apps created 10-15 years ago are not always going to be compatible with newer operating systems, and this is why councils tend to use legacy systems such as Windows XP.

In other findings, 40 per cent of respondents said it's taken between 1-2 years to complete operating system migrations in the past. And this is regardless of growing security risks.

Mat Clothier, CEO, CTO & founder of Cloudhouse, urged councils to upgrade to Windows 10 in a bid to fend off security risks.

"The perils of running applications on Windows XP and 7 were highlighted by the widespread impact of the WannaCry ransomware attacks in 2017," he said.

"Security patches are not produced for legacy systems, such as XP, and Windows 7 will join the list of legacy operating systems at the start of 2020.

He added: "Of course, upgrading to Windows 10 is the solution for improved security and performance, but with virtually all councils using bespoke apps created for Windows 7, they would need to partake in costly re-writes to make this apps compatible with Windows 10.

"However, with the use of compatibility containers, councils and private sector organisations alike are able quickly and reliably run apps on newer versions of Windows, without re-writing the applications."