Windows Server 2003 end of lifeWindows Server 2003 End of Life – Implications and Options

Microsoft is ending support for Windows Server 2003 on July 14 this year. With less than six months to go, now is the time to migrate. End of support for Windows Server 2003 can potentially have a dramatic impact on your business.

According to Microsoft’s own website, here are some of the issues to consider:

No updates

There will be no more updates or patches from Microsoft after ending support and to put this in perspective, 37 critical updates were released in 2013 for Windows Server 2003 under extended support. You can imagine the potential impact zero updates will have on your infrastructure. It can result in a less stable and less secure infrastructure for your organisation.

No compliance

After support ends, your organisation is likely to fail to meet most industry- wide compliance standards and regulations. This could result in lost business or dramatically increase the cost of doing business, in the form of high transaction fees and penalties.

No savings

The costs of maintaining your legacy servers can quickly add up. Maintenance costs for aging hardware will likely increase and you will have to deal with added costs for intrusion detection systems, more advanced firewalls and network segmentation—all simply to isolate 2003 servers. Staying put will likely cost more in the end.

No safe haven

Without continued support from Microsoft, your virtualised and physical instances of Windows Server 2003 will not pass a compliance audit. Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 will also be affected.

What can you do?

In simple terms, you have 3 options:

  1. Upgrade your server operating system to Windows 2012 R2 with new licensing and associated software and hardware requirements.
  2. Migrate to a cloud based Office 365 solution paid for on a monthly fee (operational expense rather than capital expense).
  3. Choose a combination of the two if your still require on site server applications such as Sage.

Which is right for your business?

No two businesses are the same, so there is no simple answer but we are happy to review your particular business requirements, both operational and financial and explain the cost and benefits of the various options.

How can MPS help you with your Windows 2003 migration?

In addition to offering advice on the best Microsoft Windows 2003 migration strategy for your business, MPS has over 20 years experience of providing full lifecycle support for your IT infrastructure; from conception, to implementation and to on-going support.

We are a registered silver competency partner with Microsoft, this has been achieved through a commitment to on-going training of our technical staff to ensure the strict requirements set by Microsoft are met. All our technical staff have vast, hands-on experience with the Microsoft product range and are recognised by Microsoft as experts in their relevant fields.

We are also registered as a Symantec Partner for hosted services such as hosted anti-spam, anti-virus, content control, encryption and continuity for email so we can help your business remain secure and compliant with whatever migration strategy you chose.

A sound investment

Migrating away from Windows Server 2003 is an investment in your organisation’s future and there has never been a better time to begin the migration process.

Let us help you make a sound investment.