Now that everybody has worked Windows XP out of the PC fleet (LOL), another Redmond deadline looms. Microsoft (MSFT) will be ending all support on the venerable workhorse of many organizations, Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 (and R2) will cease to be supported by Microsoft on July 14, 2015. Yeap that is less than one year.
Paul Mah at FierceCIO explains that Windows Server 2003 will be end-of-support phase on July 14, 2015, and will no longer be updated with security patches and bug fixes. He points out that companies that continue to run Windows Server 2003 July 14, 2015, will start to fail standard compliance audits. Regulations such as HIPAA, PCI, and SOX require regulated industries to run on supported platforms. Michael Cobb at SearchSecurity reminds us that most compliance and regulatory standards consider running end-of-life software as a control failure.
FierceCIO estimates that custom support agreements for Windows Server 2003 will have a hefty price tag of $200,000 per year. The article quotes Brad Anderson, Microsoft corporate vice president of Windows Server and System Center, “If new issues do happen to be found, the only way to receive additional updates will be through a custom support agreement.”
Compliance considerations aside Windows Server 2003 would have been in operation for 12 years at that point. The article says companies that continue to use an unsupported platform could find support for some server applications suspended–including all Microsoft applications.
Microsoft is expecting a large number of existing deployments to be migrated to its latest Windows Server 2012 platform. This mandatory migration could help MSFT with its market share against is virtual nemesis VMware (VMW). Mr. Anderson says a lot of Server 2003 machines need to be upgraded.
The fact of the matter is that there is a significant amount of Windows Server 2003 to upgrade around the world. We estimate that there are more than 15 million physical servers that are likely to be upgraded over the next 12 months.
Migrating millions of servers to Windows Server 2012 gives Microsoft’s virtualization technology, Hyper-V, a big boost, noted eWeek. This is because Windows Server 2003 doesn’t have any virtualization technology baked in, unlike Server 2012 which comes with Hyper-V for support for up to 1,024 active virtual machines (VM) and up to 1TB of memory per VM.
The clock is ticking though for companies looking to make the switch. The FierceCIO article reports the average Windows Server migration takes 200 days. This means that organizations looking to get started very soon, or risk running out of time.
Over at SearchSecurity, Michael Cobb, CISSP, offers a starting point for migrating from Windows Server 2003.
Start now – Mr. Cobb warms that phasing out Windows Server 2003 will be a complicated process there are choices that must be made that will affect infrastructure strategies for the foreseeable future.
Hosted Services – Organizations using hosted services will have no choice but to update their legacy software. Mr. Cobb says providers will ultimately force customers to upgrade from Windows Server 2003 so that they can continue to provide the support and security promised in their service-level agreements.
Enterprises have a couple of upgrade options when it comes to retiring Windows Server 2003 according to Mr. Cobb.
- Changing from Windows to a Unix-based OS won’t really be an option for many enterprises, as their key applications will only run on a Windows machine. Because application compatibility and a lack of in-house skills are likely the overriding issues, Unix is not an option for most companies.
- Going to Windows Server 2012 – While it is the latest Microsoft server OS, it can’t run 16-bit Windows-based applications, and 32-bit applications must be run in an emulator, making this option also unattractive because of compatibility issues according to the author of www.hairyitdog.com.
- Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition – Enterprises already running 64-bit applications should consider upgrading their hardware and moving straight to Windows Server 2012.
- Windows Server 2008 – Since Windows Server 2003 servers are likely to be running on old hardware, this upgrade route — while cheaper short-term — will probably just delay legacy hardware and software issues to a later date as both will need replacing prior to 2020 when Windows Server 2008 reaches the end of its extended support period.
SearchSecurity offers these starting points:
- Start rewriting old applications now so the inevitable problems and errors can be sorted out. It is also a great opportunity to not only improve security and stability but also add much-needed new features to enterprise systems.
Contact vendors now about 64-bit versions of key application software. If vendors have no plans to offer application upgrades, it’s time to start searching for replacements. Legacy software is always an attractive target for hackers, particularly if it is no longer supported by the original vendor.
Rewriting applications and upgrading licenses and hardware is complex, time-consuming, and costly, but vulnerable systems and data could ultimately be even more expensive. CISSP Cobb warns that doing nothing is not an option. Enterprises must start planning their migration strategies now to avoid making hasty decisions once the reality of unsupported software has already disrupted operations.
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Will the last-minute scramble to migrate from the Windows XP repeat itself all over again? To quote the immortal Yogi Berra, will it be déjà vu all over again.
The rule of thumb for successful migrations is to plan ahead, be thorough, and don’t wait until the last minute if it can be avoided. Despite this fact, a survey by AppZero found that:
- 57% of Microsoft customers are still running WS 2003
- 94% of those running WS 2003 intend to migrate, but only 24% are ready to do so
- 40% not sure of upgrade path
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
It’s time to bid goodbye to that old BlackBerry smartphone sitting in your junk drawer. The original smartphone company, initially known as Research In Motion (RIM) announced that it is ending support for BlackBerry OS on January 4, 2022. The former Canadian tech powerhouse will be end support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1. This means all non-Android based BlackBerry’s will useful. The last version of BlackBerry OS was launched in 2013.
BlackBerry (BB), was the most popular smartphone brand before the iPhone. It was an icon beloved by wall-street types as they clutched the smartphone with a keyboard and trackball. It was dubbed CrackBerry hinting at how dependent people were on them. POTUS Obama refused to give his up when he entered the White House in 2009. BlackBerry’s appealed to professionals who wanted the flexibility of work from anywhere before the pandemic.
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Do nothing (Again) – Microsoft will be pushing out KB4577586 during an 
IT departments organizations are busy keeping up with XP replacements, Cloud migrations, BYOD implementations and now Microsoft has reminded everybody that there are other fires burning on the horizon. 
