Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Extended Support Ends July 2015

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Jan. 26, 2015 - PRLog -- Microsoft is ending extended support for the Windows Server 2003 edition of their Operating System for dedicated servers on July 2015. It’s advised that dedicated server managers or administrators think seriously about upgrading to the 2008 Enterprise edition or newer to avoid security vulnerabilities and lack of any patches.

When Microsoft ends support for one of their products, this means that patches are no longer being issued to those servers running that particular Operating System as well as any security updates which are essential to server security (http://www.hostinganddesigns.com/HD/value-added-services/security-packages/vipre-antivirus/). It can in some instances, depending on the complexity of a server setup and configuration, take several weeks and even months to ensure all migrations are carried out properly and confirmed.

Migration time and expenditure are key factors to consider in an Operating System  migration.

It is still possible however, to obtain custom support from Microsoft after July 2015, which can cost up to $200,000 per year which is a steep price to pay and out of reach for many businesses. Making the upgrade to Microsoft Windows 2008 Enterprise may make better sense. Unfortunately many businesses are afraid of migrating and thinking that the saying “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” applies to them. However, if it should happen that the server does become “broken” due to the outdated Operating System, the results can be painful in many ways, including its finances, stature or image, and uptime or online presence.

A migration can be a good time to re-evaluate a company’s services and determine what may need to change, be retired, stay the same or be refreshed.

Also worth noting, is fewer applications and software will support the outdated Windows server 2003 and many dedicated server providers will simply stop providing it due to security and one less Operating System to have to maintain and provide support for, freeing up techs to focus on the most used Operating Systems instead, thus providing faster and more up-to-date advice and knowledge.

One main challenge to upgrading from Windows 2003 is the change from 32Bit to 64Bit.  While this should not be a dead-end problem with no applications and software supporting 64Bit, it is not an impossible scenario. However, worth noting is that if the applications running on the Windows 2003 server at the present time are not able to use the newer 64Bit architecture, it should also say something about the applications being used at the time and if they are still an ideal solution for any dedicated server administrator. Applications that cannot use 64Bit architecture is not a good sign.

Before a migration process begins, determine which software and workloads are most important and focus on those. If the most important day-to-day operations will be able to migrate, a major hurdle has been overcome.

It is also possible to consider migrating to a completely different Operating System such as Linux or Unix, if that is a better solution since the migration has to be carried out anyway. This sort of data migration will take longer than staying within the same Windows Operating system. Another option is to consider Software as a Service or Cloud services. Again, make sure the software and applications will support the different Operating System and if they can be found as a SaaS and/or via Cloud as a suitable alternative. Some can even just be replaced by better applications instead of upgrading what is simply not meeting a businesses expectations and needs to begin with. For more details please go here: http://www.hostinganddesigns.com/Blog/