The extended support period for Windows Server 2003 ends on 14 July 2015, forcing many South African enterprises still running on Windows Server 2003 to confront the reality that, while their systems may still be working well, change is inevitable.
"After support ends, enterprises will face the risk of cyber crime and may become non-compliant. This is particularly important for those in the financial sector and any business accepting electronic payments," notes Duarte Guerra, Solution Account CTO at TS Consulting, HP. "Local enterprises are starting to become quite concerned about the security implications, as enterprises are viewing security fixes as being among the most critical fixes for their installed servers.
But, with only six months to go until the support period ends, many local enterprises are running out of time to plan their migration to supported operating systems. Some running specialised applications or tried and trusted legacy applications have been reluctant to move, since these applications still function effectively, or they are mission-critical.
"There really is no other option now," says Guerra. "Migration must take place this year."
While the migration process may be costly and complex, it presents a good opportunity for enterprises to harness the moment of change as an opportunity to embark on other potentially disruptive changes. "Many have been considering a move to the cloud. This migration phase presents a good opportunity for them to begin their cloud journey at the same time."
Riaan Ferreira, country manager TS Consulting at HP, says cloud is just one of the options for those migrating applications of Windows Server 2003. "However, we are seeing that as companies look to moving applications from A to B, they are bringing cloud into the conversation. At the same time, they are revisiting their big data and virtualisation plans. So the Windows Server 2003 end of life could well catalyse a lot of movement this year."
The journey to cloud is similar to the journey to migration, says HP, in that it begins with an audit of the existing landscape, risk assessments and prioritisation of applications to be moved, with the business goals in mind.
HP, in partnership with Microsoft, is helping customers plan their migration through comprehensive consulting workshops and roadmap development.
For more information, go to www.hp.com/go/ws2003.
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