Fail to prepare and prepare to fail as the old adage goes!
On July 14^th 2015, the reliable and much loved Windows 2003 Server is coming to its EOL. In the dynamic and fast paced world of IT, with cybercrime at its peak, a 12 year old system simply won’t do. To be fair it has had a great run, however, it’s now time to future proof your network to accommodate for advances in IT such as virtualisation and cloud technologies to reap the security, deployment and cost benefits that these provide.

What does this Win 2003 EOL mean for your company?

Essentially, this EOL means that Microsoft will end their support and they will no longer provide updates, patches and fixes.  This raises a number of issues centred on security, compliance and general functionality. Security application vendors will also be ending their support so leaving your network or critical systems exposed or vulnerable should be considered the biggest issue.

Many companies persist with the use of Win 2003 as a result of layered software approach which usually depends on other applications using the Windows server OS. This leads to 3 possible challenges:

• Custom Applications: Whether developed in-house or externally this causes a problem when migrating as code may need to be altered and moved to accommodate.
• Packaged applications: The challenge here lies within the available product version & whether installation is possible without a purchased update.
• Out of support applications: Many companies still use out of service apps OR products that may be EOL shortly. For example any company using Microsoft SQL 2005 servers would need to migrate again in 2016 due to the EOL date on the 12 April 2016.

To summarise, companies should take a holistic view of their ecosystems and any systems that are dependent on a Win 2003 server. The aim is to gain the longest ROI and make good business decisions that benefit the entire application stack!

What are the future trends and what you need to do?

Nearly all IT departments are being influenced by current trends such as BOYD, Virtualisation, Cloud Computing and Standardization of complex IT environments. With this in mind, we believe that companies should use this as an opportunity to modernize their IT environments. The reality of surpassing the Win 2003 EOL date is one that inherits many risks and threats which can be easily avoided. The following is a four pronged approach to tackle your migration workloads:

1. Discover – find out which workloads are running in order to devise a feasible plan
2. Assess – which workloads need to be moved
3. Target – prioritise which workloads need to migrated and are critical to the organisation
4. Migrate – follow through with the plans to move the chosen workloads

Our IT experts can assist you and show you how to maximize your Win 2003 Microsoft Server migration with tailored solutions that best fit your needs. Contact us today for a free assessment of your current server solutions.