Published on the 09/04/2015 | Written by Clare Coulson
With less than 100 days to the end of support for Windows Server 2003, Microsoft says that more than 60 percent of New Zealand organisations could be left vulnerable…
Microsoft New Zealand is advising customers, once again, that time is running out for organisations still using Windows Server 2003. The 11-year old system has been a favourite of many enterprises and smaller businesses and, because of is stability, there has been little incentive to update. But now there are less than 100 days to the end of support deadline on 14 July 2015 and Microsoft is painting a grim picture of what might happen to organisations still using the product past that date. Since January 2014, it says that according to a report by Secunia, a global player in software vulnerability management, 47 new vulnerabilities have been identified on Windows Server 2003, with more than 10 listed as critical or highly critical.
Frazer Scott, marketing and operations director for Microsoft New Zealand, says companies still using Windows Server 2003 after the end of support deadline will be particularly vulnerable as no new security patches will be made available. He added that it can typically take around 200 days to complete a server migration, so with just 100 days left before the deadline, this is especially critical, given the fast-paced evolution of security threats. Heavily regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking/finance and insurance, as well as any company that processes credit card transactions will be particularly at risk.
“If they have not already, IT leaders and business owners need to move quickly to protect the applications and information residing on old servers. The July deadline represents an opportunity to future-proof your business and realise the benefits of moving to modern platforms like Windows Server 2012,” he said.
Microsoft Office corporate vice president John Case said at the 2014 Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) last July, that there were still 22 million instances of Windows Server 2003 running worldwide and, as such, he estimated there was US$6 billion in potential partner revenue available in upgrading customers. Locally, numbers based on data from New Zealand users on Spiceworks (the IT community networking portal) show that more than 60 percent of Kiwi organisations have at least one instance of Windows Server 2003 running. This represents a drop of just five percent since last year, suggesting that companies may not have heard about or are simply ignoring the approach of the date.
In an effort to assess how serious this event is to enterprise IT and determine what preparations are underway, US-based AppZero conducted a survey at the end of last year – six months out from the end-of-support date. It questioned 500 Fortune 1000 IT professionals about their state of readiness for the end of support. With six months left until the support was to end only 21 percent of respondents had a remediation plan in place and 65 percent of respondents said they would not finish their migrations in time for EOS. Over half of the respondents said they were worried about security compliance and vulnerability management and 31 percent were concerned about increased support costs. Asked which applications they were most concerned about, 33 percent said financial applications, 21 percent ERP and 17 percent homegrown applications.
One third (36 percent) indicated that they will be moving their applications to the cloud as part of their upgrade process. An additional 40 percent were “unsure” – which AppZero translated to meaning it is likely that more than half of respondents will ultimately choose to move to the cloud.
Scott agrees that cloud computing options could be a common upgrade pathway here in New Zealand.
“IT demands have changed dramatically since the launch of Windows Server 2003 more than 11 years ago. IT leaders across all industries are now managing an infrastructure that demands support for cloud, mobility, social and data-intensive applications.
“In addition, the increasing security and privacy threats are pressuring businesses of all sizes to transform in this new mobile-first, cloud-first world – all of which cannot be met with old technology platforms,” he says.
“Customers have more cost effective choices than ever before which include on-premise infrastructure, a hybrid approach or to go completely to the cloud, depending on their needs and budget,” says Scott.
If you are considering your migration options, the following Microsoft resources might be of interest:
- Windows Server 2003 end of support website – guidance for the entire migration process along with information about the services and tools available.
- A Migration Planning Assistant – helps organizations analyse their Windows Server 2003 workloads and generates a summary report showing recommendations and Microsoft partner offerings
