Microsoft Windows Server 2003 End of Life – Should I Care?

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 will officially sunset (support will end) on July 14th of 2015, so what does this actually mean? Well, luckily we have ample time to prepare for the end-of-life of Server 2003. What does it generally mean when Microsoft drops all support of an operating system anyway?

Below is a transcript of a conversation we had to cover this topic.

Tony: Welcome once again to the Promethius Consulting coffee lounge. We are here to answer your technology questions as Promethius is Indy’s trusted managed services solution.

Question from Corey M. of Greenwood, IN : “I heard that Windows 2003 Server is going away on July 15th of 2015. What does this mean and what can I do about it?”

Aaron: This is much like the Windows XP end-of-life cycle that we recently experienced. 2003 Server is the next product that Microsoft is sunsetting. End of service is 7/15/2015, so what you should be doing during this budget cycle is starting to think about what we are going to do with those servers that are running 2003 Server.

Also you need to decide where those resources will go. Will you replace your existing server with a new server? Will you move to the cloud? These are things that we can help plan during your quarterly review sessions and your budget meetings.

Tony: It’s nice that Microsoft gives us a lot of lead time, so that by the time these things come due and support truly drops off, there are truly no excuses.

What types of things can happen if we drag our feet, ignore the warnings about end-of-service, and don’t replace Windows 2003?

Aaron: What end-of-service really means is that they are going to stop patching the operating system, including both security patches and functional patches. All of that stops on 7/15/2015. So what that means is that over time, vulnerabilities could be exploited on that server, and Microsoft will make no effort to fill those holes.

So it really means that we should take proactive measures to get those unprotected operating systems off our networks to ensure that we have the security levels we expect and require.

Tony: Aaron, thanks for that great info. If any of our viewers are in Indianapolis and would like the help of a managed services company to sunset their servers, feel free to give us a call.