Any business that hinges its day-to-day operations on the Google Chrome browser should be aware that the company will stop allowing its users to run classic web plugins soon.
Starting January 2015, the company will no longer support Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) add-ons that are seen as outdated. Later that year, in April, it will start to remove plugin functionality altogether from the browser.
Some of the plugins that the company is still allowing, for now, include Microsoft Silverlight (a chief component of Netflix streaming), Java and Google Talk. Although the number of people using these plugins has been steadily dropping over the past few months, Silverlight still remains the most popular, with 11 percent of Chrome customers launching it at least once per month, according to Tech Crunch.
In a post on the official "Chromium Blog," Justin Schuh recently wrote about the staggered phaseout plan, saying that September 2015 is the ultimate deadline for Chrome plugins. The company is taking a staggered approach to allow its customer base the extra chance to adjust.
"In April 2015 NPAPI support will be disabled by default in Chrome and we will unpublish extensions requiring NPAPI plugins from the Chrome Web Store," he said. "Although plugin vendors are working hard to move to alternate technologies, a small number of users still rely on plugins that haven't completed the transition yet."
If your enterprise hasn't assessed the long-term reliability of its browser and plugins, this plan presents an obvious need to do so. To avoid concerns over lost applications and continued performance, enterprises should invest in a web based terminal emulator that allows workers to stay engaged with mainframe applications as browsers receive new updates.