Yeah that's not a patch or an update, that's a rewrite. ARM is fundamentally different than x86 and AMD64, there's no backwards compatibility to consider. Comparing the two is like trying to compare English with Japanese as languages, fundamentally utterly different and translation requires a mess of work.
Microsoft has most of their software complete with an ARM variant that allows for near native functionality if most of your work is within the M365 context. But as soon as you step outside of that... you're off the rails. Right now the "solution" for running x86 software on ARM is VDI. With most LOB vendors moving their applications to the cloud, the rewrites you're seeing are migrating to the appropriate SaaS solution, which again once you've done that the endpoint no longer matters.
That is what's driving this exchange. Cloud service SaaS models do not allow customers to improperly invest, and therefore you get improved security relative to the traditional IT model. There is a massive reduction in local support cost as well, and the movement to browser apps means the endpoint's architecture no longer matters. ARM based endpoints are vastly more power efficient, and therefore vastly more thermally efficient too. This means longer battery life, and lower operating costs.
All of this is horrific news for small IT shops. Larger IT firms have the resources to deploy a NOC, SOC, and service desk and can support industry on a global scale and no longer require boots on the ground. Once the transition to cloud infrastructure is complete, all the boots on the ground are doing are serving as glorified FedEx drivers, delivering endpoints and collecting damaged equipment for repair. A few companies will pickup the cabling work, and be tasked with implementing the routers, switches, and WAPs and maintaining the connectivity infrastructure, that need isn't going away.
But the days of selling yourself out for $X / hour to maintain an intelligent, customized, on-premises infrastructure are over. The few industries that are left lagging on switching to the cloud due to connectivity reasons have no choice but to absorb the rapidly increasing costs of the relatively few engineers left that can work on these systems, and new engineers on that level aren't being created.
ARM is the future.
Zero Trust methodologies are required.
Cloud hosted services are the present, and near term future.
It remains to be seen if there will be a backlash push to bring things back in house, but even if we do again... the skill to maintain that infrastructure is rare. Mistakes destroy entire businesses, so as long as it pays silly amounts of money to run Crypto assaults... This entire market segment will remain on the shrinking side of the coin.
Plan accordingly.
P.S. This transition is inching closer to allowing us to use Android or iOS devices AS OUR DESKTOPS at some point too, which ultimately I think will be the way most organizations go. I don't think Windows on the endpoint has much longer to live in the professional space, relatively. These trends will take decades to complete, so it's not like it's happening tomorrow. But it's also closer than any of us care to admit!
