The Department of Defence and the Australian Taxation Office spends millions of dollars on Windows 7 extended security updates

The Department of Defence and the Australian Taxation Office will pay $8.7 million for Windows 7 extended security updates (ESU), as many devices across the Australian government are still running the Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft previously discontinued support for the operating system on January 14.

This contract ensures that devices running Windows 7 can obtain customized security patches at least until January 2021. As early as December, the Australian Taxation Office paid another $1,582,955 for extended security updates for Windows Server 2008. Microsoft also ended support for Windows Server 2008 on January 14.

Windows 7 currently has a market share of about 25%. As more and more organizations and businesses around the world complete the transition to Windows 10, Windows 7 market share is likely to decline significantly in the coming months.