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Windows 7 migration: Clearing the smoke

Webinar clears up the facts about options for migrating ATMs to the new Windows 7 operating system - or not.

December 17, 2013 by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

ATM operators whose fleets run on Windows XP do not have to migrate to Windows 7, and nobody can make them. It doesn't get much clearer than this.

However, financial considerations make it more or less obligatory. A look at the possible consequences of not migrating makes this pretty clear, as well.

In a webinar last Thursday about the upcoming end of support for the popular XP operating system, Aravinda Korala, CEO of KAL ATM Software explained in detail the ins, outs, and fine print of the pending changeover.

"If you must stay on Windows XP, and if you feel that new functionality is not that important to you as you go into the future, and you're happy with XP functionality — because no ATM designer is going to build new functionality into an XP environment that is now going to be out of date — then make sure you lock down those ATMs," Korala said. 

In fact, Korala listed several things deployers should do if they won't be changing over to Windows 7 before XP support ends on April 8, 2014:

In theory, this works. But in practice? It's complicated.

"Most support contracts are through the hardware manufacturer and you are unlikely to be able to buy a Microsoft CSA through hardware manufacturer because the harware manufacturers don't seem to be very interested in doing that and also because the costs are very high," Korala said.

Additionally, a multi-vendor fleet will require a CSA for each different manufacturer, Korala said. However, one option for a bank might be to change XP software to run on a bank enterprise Windows software license — which is both a quick and financially viable option to stay on XP. 

Eventually, the FI will still have to make the change to Windows 7, since the XP license, EMV kernel and PCI compliance will all expire within two years, "But the two year period makes that easier to plan," Korala said.

"And then what happens is that because you're CSA directly from Microsoft that covers not just the ATMs but also your complete network," he said. "Because you're now running an enterprise license from Microsoft, you can now get the CSA directly from Microsoft that covers not only only the ATMs, but also your complete network. Your bank probably already has such an enterprise CSA anyway and it means that the ATMs could be tagged onto that, perhaps at fairly low cost."

This can still be prohibitively expensive, he said. He said information from Microsoft put the cost for a CSA at $1 million. Operators with multiple ATM brands would have to purchase a CSA for each brand, so a fleet with ATMs from three different manufacturers would require three CSAs at $1 million per.

What's more, Korala said, the cost of a CSA would increase by a factor of five in the second year. So an FI with three ATM makers' machines in its fleet would pay three million minimum in the first year, plus an additional $15 million in the second year — a total of $18 million.

Given this cost, Korala said, going to Windows 7 would be the most cost-effective solution for most operators, even though there are costs associated with migration that go beyond the software license and installation.

Deployers need to take five steps before they begin migration, Korala said. He listed these as:

Korala and Steve Hensley, KAL EVP of sales and marketing, also covered in-depth many of the finer points of migration, Windows 7 features and the pros and cons of a changeover — and answered a number of questions from webinar attendees about their particular Windows 7 concerns.

A playback of the complete webinar, with slide deck and Q&A session, is now available for download at ATM marketplace. The recording will be available for free replay for one year.

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photo:imilyas

About Suzanne Cluckey

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Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.

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KAL ATM Software

KAL is a world-leading provider of multivendor ATM platform, application and management software, specializing in solutions for bank ATMs, self-service kiosks, and bank branch networks.

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