Time’s Up: Colleges Prepare for Life After Windows Server 2003

If you haven't been watching the official Microsoft countdown clock, on July 14, the company will officially cease support for Windows Server 2003, a much-loved operating system.

After that date, although the operating system will still function, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates, leaving many institutions vulnerable to malicious digital attacks and to data loss from fresh computer viruses.

Microsoft advises those still using the aging operating system to begin executing a migration strategy promptly if they want their infrastructures to remain secure. For those who want to migrate to a newer, more secure platform, many options are available.

"By migrating to Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Azure or Office 365, you can achieve concrete benefits, including improved performance, reduced maintenance requirements, and increased agility and speed of response to the business," according to Microsoft.

EdTech: Focus on Higher Education has covered the Windows Server 2003 migration on several fronts. Our feature story, “The Final Countdown: Colleges Prepare for the End of Windows Server 2003,” from the Spring 2014 issue, highlighted three colleges managing server OS migrations.

4 Steps to Ease OS Migration

To assist those making the move, the company laid out four steps recommended before migrating to a new Microsoft platform:

1. Determine which applications still run on Windows Server 2003 by using the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit.

2. Prioritize applications you intend to migrate by their importance and the complexity of migrating them.

3. Choose a future for those applications, whether it's one of Microsoft's cloud-based solutions or a data center. The company offers free trials of many of its comparable platforms, including Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Azure and SQL Server 2015.

4. Build a migration plan, whether it's within your team or outsourced with specialists like CDW•G.

OS Migration Can Be a Time of Renewal

This can be a time of tough decisions for institutions operating on tight budgets. For many, it means deciding whether to upgrade or replace older machines and software. However, these end-of-life milestones are an opportunity to transform aging data centers into modern powerhouses.

Windows Server 2003 was not built during an age of virtual machine dominance. Modern operating systems are far more capable. Windows Server 2012 RT Hyper-V can support 1,024 active virtual machines per host, and up to 8,000 virtual machines per 64-node cluster, according to Microsoft.

Looking for more resources? Register to download a white paper on making the most of Windows Server 2003’s end.