From InfoWorld: Microsoft will double the per-PC price of support for enterprises still stuck with Windows XP systems when the anniversary of the aged OS's retirement rolls around in April, a licensing expert said Wednesday.
The per-PC price for what Microsoft calls "custom support agreements" (CSAs) will jump to $400, the expert said after requesting anonymity.
CSAs provide critical security updates for an operating system that's been officially retired, as Windows XP was on April 8, 2014. CSAs are negotiated on a company-by-company basis and also require that an organization has adopted a top-tier support plan, dubbed Premier Support, offered by Microsoft.
The CSA failsafe lets companies pay for security patches beyond the normal support lifespan while they finish their migrations to newer editions of Windows. Most enterprises have shifted -- and are continuing to do so -- to Windows 7 rather than adopt Windows 8.1.
Last year, just days before Microsoft retired Windows XP, the company slashed the price of CSAs to $200-per-device with a cap of $250,000.
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