What About Windows 11?

This new standard may be able to rebuild banks’ ATM business, speed up the development of smart branches, offer better customer experiences. We keep watching and studying on the new standard. — Xie GongHui, Zijin Fulcrum Technology Co.,Ltd, China

When asked what they thought the biggest benefits of XFS4 would be, 31 percent of respondents to the ATM & Self-Service Software Trends survey chose operating system independence. This was well ahead of the second most popular choice, faster innovation, named by 23 percent of respondents.

The overwhelming majority of ATMs use Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The response to the XFS4 question may point to banks’ dissatisfaction with upgrading Windowsbased ATMs. The complicated exercise doesn’t just involve the banks themselves. ATM manufacturers must create the device drivers that allow the OS to run on their machines, and transaction processors must certify it to use in their networks. The upgrades often require hardware upgrades and, in worst-case scenarios, sometimes render ATMs obsolete.

Moving ATMs from Windows 7 to Windows 10 proved to be an especially big challenge because many banks attempted it during the pandemic. Supply chain issues created long waits for new hardware, and staff was in short supply to visit machines that needed field upgrades.

Some banks are still using Windows 7, which exposes them to increased security risks from running an old OS and possible fees for being in violation of PCI DSS requirements. Microsoft released a newer version of its flagship OS, Windows 11 IoT Enterprise, in October of 2021. Yet there seems to be little interest among financial institutions in looking at Windows 11.

Sixty-six percent of respondents to the ATM & Self-Service Software Trends survey said they had already upgraded some or all of their ATMs to Windows 10. Thirteen percent haven’t yet done anything but are planning to migrate to Windows 10 in the relatively near future. Twelve percent are considering alternative solutions, while just three percent are changing their plans and waiting for Windows 11.

Scott Anderson, Vice President, Banking Software Product Management at Diebold Nixdorf, isn’t surprised. He said that most financial institutions upgrade their OS because of regulatory and/or PCI requirements.

“PCI dictates you should use an OS that still receives security updates/fixes. Some financial institutions try to extend this as long as possible by buying Microsoft ESUs or compensating

security controls,” Anderson said. “Most in the industry follow the LTSB/LTSC version of Windows IoT with the latest LTSC version being Windows 10 LTSC 2021. This channel is supported for 10 years or until Jan. 13, 2032. So, I don’t see OS upgrade cycles change as they are mainly dictated by the lifecycle policy provided by the OS vendor and the lack of desire from any financial institution to upgrade the OS to just upgrade the OS. Windows 11 will not change this.”

Interview Insights

INTERVIEW QUESTION: 66% of banks told us that they have already upgraded some or all of their ATMs to Windows 10. Do you plan to migrate your ATMs to Windows 11? Are alternative operating systems (such as Linux) interesting to your organization? Why?

We are in the process of migrating to Windows 10. Linux was discussed before migration process, but additional expenses for Linux support on ATMs was more expensive than Windows 10 licenses. — Tengiz Papidze, JSC United Finance Corporation, Georgia

We are fully migrated to Windows 10, and I see us staying with 10 vs 11 in the near future. The factor that might drive us to 11 would be to take advantage of cloud APIs that may be more accessible to Windows 11. However, this would be part of a comprehensive cloud strategy. — Ryan Loesch, Truist Financial Corporation, U.S.

China banks are less willing to upgrade to Windows 11, mostly considering the stability of system. And because Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7, some banks began to plan to upgrade to Windows 10. Many more banks started to try Chinese brand Linux; on one side to reduce the upgrading cost of Windows, on the other side, banks didn’t see ATM performance improve too much even upgrading Windows. — Xie GongHui, Zijin Fulcrum Technology Co.,Ltd, China

I believe the banks will only plan to migrate their ATMs to Windows 11 one year before end of support for Windows 10. Linux will be a good alternative for the banks, as they will not have to worry about spending much on ATM hardware upgrade whenever a current version of Windows OS is coming to the end of support. — Ricky Fang, Impromptu Solutions Sdn Bhd, Malaysia