Windows Server 2003 – Four Months and Counting

Unless you’ve been living in a cave in the mountains for the last several months, you’re probably aware that Windows Server 2003 hits End of Life on July 14, 2015 – roughly four months from now. That means Microsoft will no longer develop or release security patches or fixes for the OS. You will no longer be able to call Microsoft for support if you have a problem with your 2003 server. Yet, astoundingly, only a few weeks ago Microsoft was estimating that there were still over 8 million 2003 servers in production.

Are some of them yours? If so, consider this: As Mike Boyle pointed out in his blog last October, you’re running a server OS that was released the year Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg entered college; the year Wikipedia was launched; the year Myspace (remember them?) was founded; the year the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl. Yes, it was that long ago.

Do you have to deal with HIPAA or PCI compliance? What would it mean to your organization if you didn’t pass your next audit? Because you probably won’t if you’re still running 2003 servers. And even if HIPAA or PCI aren’t an issue, what happens when (not if) the next big vulnerabilty is discovered and you have no way to patch for it?

Yes, I am trying to scare you – because this really is serious stuff, and if you don’t have a migration plan yet, you don’t have much time to assemble one. Please, let’s not allow this to become another “you can have it when you pry it from my cold dead hands” scenario like Windows XP. There really is too much at stake here. You can upgrade. You can move to the cloud. Or you can put your business as risk. It’s your call.

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