The American Navy has paid millions of dollars to Microsoft to continue to support its 100,000 computers still running Windows XP. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), responsible for the communication and information networks of the U.S. Navy, has signed a service contract of $9.1 million at the beginning of this month.
Part of the contract is that Microsoft will continue to supply security updates to Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003. Official support for Windows Server 2003 ends next month. The entire contract can earn Microsoft $30.8 million and continues through 2017.
The American Navy started two years ago with the migration to a newer operating system but about 100,000 computers still run on Windows XP and other software. A spokesman of the U.S. Navy stated that the organisation still uses several legacy applications that only work on older Windows versions. Till those applications are updated or phased out, the U.S. Navy continues to need to use the mentioned Windows versions.
