http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-16/atms-face-deadline-to-upgrade-from-windows-xp
By Nick Summers
Businessweek
January 16, 2014
One-dollar bills. Envelope-free deposits. Stamp dispensers. These are a
few of the features that Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC),
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and other banks tout as the latest and greatest
features of their fleets of ATMs. It’s hardly stuff to set the heart
racing.
When ATMs were introduced more than 40 years ago, they were considered
advanced technology. Today, not so much. There are 420,000 ATMs in the
U.S., and on April 8, a deadline looms for nearly all of them that
underscores how sluggishly the nation’s cash delivery system moves
forward. That’s the day Microsoft (MSFT) cuts off tech support for Windows
XP, meaning that ATMs running the software will no longer receive regular
security patches and won’t be in compliance with industry standards. Most
machines that get upgraded will shift to Windows 7, an operating system
that became available in October 2009. (Some companies get a bit of a
reprieve: For ATMs using a stripped-down version of XP known as Windows XP
Embedded, which is less susceptible to viruses, Microsoft support lasts
until early 2016.)
Inside every ATM casing is a computer, and like all such devices, each one
runs on an OS. Microsoft’s 12-year-old Windows XP dominates the ATM
market, powering more than 95 percent of the world’s machines and a
similar percentage in the U.S., according to Robert Johnston, a marketing
director at NCR (NCR), the largest ATM supplier in the U.S.
The many offshoots of the country’s jumbled ATM network, ranging from
convenience stores that operate a single antiquated cash machine to
national banks that oversee tens of thousands of terminals, are feeling
the deadline in different ways, says Suzanne Cluckey, the editor of ATM
Marketplace, a news site that serves the industry. More advanced ATM
fleets can do the update over their networks. Older ATMs must be upgraded
one by one or even replaced entirely if they don’t have enough computing
power to run the newer, more demanding software. “My bank operates an ATM
that looks like it must be 20 years old, and there’s no way that it can
support Windows 7,” says Cluckey. “A lot of ATMs will have to either have
their components upgraded or be discarded altogether and sold into the
aftermarket—or just junked.”
Aravinda Korala, chief executive officer of ATM software provider KAL,
says he expects only 15 percent of bank ATMs in the U.S. to be on Windows
7 by the April deadline. “The ATM world is not really ready, and that’s
not unusual,” he says. “ATMs move more slowly than PCs.” While ATMs seem
to be everywhere, their total number—an estimated 3 million worldwide,
according to consulting firm Retail Banking Research—isn’t very many
compared with the global base of Windows users. As a rule, security
patches that directly affect the machines might be issued only once a
quarter, Korala says.
[...]
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