Is your Windows 10 migration strategy leaving you vulnerable?

Despite enhanced security being a key driver in the move to Windows 10, many organizations are putting their security at risk with their choice of migration strategy, according to new research by 1E.

The report found that, by taking an in-place upgrade option, many organizations are missing the opportunity to enable advanced security features.

The in-place upgrade fails to provide the full suite of Windows 10 security features including Secure Boot, Device Guard and biometric authentication, leaving many users unprotected against today’s inevitable security threats.

Ironically, the survey, completed by more than 500 U.S. IT decision makers, found that security is the single biggest driver behind an enterprise moving to Windows 10 in the first place, with 47 percent identifying security as the main anticipated benefit. These security concerns are well warranted, with nearly two in three respondents claiming their organization has experienced a security breach.

“Companies clearly want a more secure operating system by adopting Windows 10,” said Sumir Karayi, founder and CEO of 1E, “but in the rush to get there, organizations can end up being inadequately protected and would benefit from a more methodical approach.”

Regardless of the upgrade approach, nearly all (94%) respondents reported their company’s migration strategy still involves some level of manual labor.

This manual intervention delays software rollout, leaves systems vulnerable to attack, and prevents scaling OS deployment to hundreds or thousands of systems in parallel.