Are you ready to migrate? Windows Server 2003 'End of Life' is coming July 14th 2015

  • Article

image The following post was contributed by Steve Brennan ,Microsoft Business Development Manager at QA

Has it really been over a decade since Windows Server 2003 hit the market?
Technology has come a long way in 10 years. Today’s servers run increased workloads for big data, mobile application hosting, social collaboration platforms, streaming video and web hosting. One thing that hasn’t changed on the server front, though, is the requirement for 24/7 performance.

But what happens to this performance when Microsoft stops supporting your operating system?

With the end of life support for Windows Server 2003 on July 14th 2015 rapidly approaching, now is the time to start planning your migration process.

What does end of support for Windows Server 2003 mean?
End of support for Windows Server 2003 means:

  • No updates - 37 critical updates were released in 2013 for Windows Server 2003/R2 under Extended Support. No updates will be developed or released after end of support.
  • No compliance - lack of compliance with various standards and regulations can be devastating. This may include various regulatory and industry standards for which compliance can no longer be achieved.
  • No applications support - Many applications will also cease to be supported, once the operating system they are running on is unsupported. This includes all Microsoft applications.

What changes when you migrate to Windows Server 2012?
With the Architectural changes in 32 bit to 64 bit technology – everything changes in Windows Server 2012.

As you migrate your IT infrastructure to Windows Server 2012 you benefit from, reduced cost of ownership through the improvement of management of resources, better security, high scalability, improved performance, Increased functionality, in-box virtualisation and cloud support, improved manageability and on-going product support.

With the average Windows Server taking over 200 days to migrate, now it is the time to act and start planning for your migration.

What next?
To help you plan your migration, in partnership with Microsoft – QA’s industry guru Paul Gregory is delivering a ‘free’ live one hour webinar “Migrating from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012” on 21stJuly 2014 at 2pm.

During the webinar and highlighted via live interactive product demonstrations, Paul will investigate the process of migrating from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012. He will discuss what end of support for Windows Server 2003 means, how you can transform your infrastructure with Windows Server 2012R2, and what are the key things you need to plan and consider for a successful migration.

If you can’t make the live event, don’t worry we will also be recording the live broadcast and making it available on-demand for you to watch and share with your colleagues off-line as soon as the event finishes.

What’s stopping you migrating off Windows Server 2003? Let us know via @TechNetUK. for more information on support, check out our Microsoft product support lifecycle.