Windows 2003 Server end of life July 2015

They say “all things must pass” and it’s almost time once more for Microsoft to retire one of their main products. As of 14/07/2015 Microsoft Server 2003 will no longer be supported.

But what does this mean to you?

Firstly, Microsoft will no longer be releasing any security patches for this operating system, leaving your server vulnerable to any new threats that are released by any malicious parties. And you can bet there will be a lot of these. This will put your network and data at risk, with the potential of you losing assess to your data and being held ransomed or for it to ‘leaked’ online for everyone to use. Not pretty.

Second to this, if there are any issues with the server operating system that one of our highly trained account managers are unable to fix, we will no longer be able to make use of the Microsoft support team to help resolve any complex issues. Both of these apply to equally  a single server or servers that are installed as part of a larger infrastructure.

What can we do to help?

Northern Star is able to recommend, and implement, the best possible solution for your business to ensure a hassle free migration away from the 2003 platform. We’ll make sure we find the best fit, taking into account your operational requirements, budget, redundancies and required uptime. We think about the way your business works and ask questions such as: Do you need servers onsite or in the cloud? Is a hybrid solution best for your business? So you not only solve the legacy problem, but can do more once the solution has been put in place.

Finally, once best solution has been decided on, we will quickly plan and deploy these recommendations with minimal impact to your everyday work. It can be tough for those without experience to do it the right way, but we’ve done this many times before for businesses just like yours.

If you’re worried about having 2003 Servers in your IT estate and need a hand migrating away before the deadline, give us a call on 0800 319 6032 and we’d be happy to help.