Prepare for Windows Server & SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 end of support
Monday, November 26, 2018
With technology rapidly evolving, it’s important to us that we help our customers stay up to date, support them in getting ready for the future and help them take advantage of today’s technologies.
That’s why we’ve created this blog post to inform you that extended support is coming to an end for the below releases:
- Extended Support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will end on July 9, 2019.
- Extended Support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will end on January 14, 2020.
End of support means the end of regular security updates. With cyber-attacks becoming more sophisticated and frequent, running apps and data on unsupported versions can create significant security and compliance risks for your customers and their business.
End of support creates the perfect opportunity to move your customers to a cloud-based solution, such as Azure, and help them reap the rewards of cloud technology, including the ability to scale up or down quickly, pay only for what they use, and save on compute power.
However, we understand that it can be difficult to upgrade all of your customers before the end of support timeframe. To resolve this, Extended Security Updates will be available for free in Azure for SQL Server (2008/R2) and Windows Server (2008/R2) to help secure your workloads for three more years after the end of support deadline. You can re-host these workloads to Azure with no application change. This gives you more time to plan your future path, including upgrading to newer versions such as SQL Server 2017 or Windows Server 2016, and enables you to utilise the rich set of platform and data services available in Azure.
You can also move your SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 deployments with no application code change and near-zero downtime to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance. It is a fully-managed database-as-a-service solution with industry leading SLAs and does not require future upgrades. Azure SQL Database Managed Instance is now generally available in the Azure Portal.
Benefits for you
Your customers rely on you to keep their servers up to date with the latest software and ensure that any hardware you have provided is compliant. We understand it may be difficult to persuade the cloud sceptics to migrate to the cloud, however, once you do, the benefits are endless.
Customers that are reliant upon on-premise servers are not only costing themselves money, but it also costs you time. With on-premise customers, you are more likely to need to spend time with maintenance, providing updates and more. However, migrating your customers to Microsoft Azure means that you can provision and maintain it all from your own office.
By the end of 2018, 45% of enterprise organisations had already merged their on-premise datacentres with the public cloud. Moving your customers to the cloud now will secure your future revenue and help you gain a competitive edge over other MSPs, as well as the opportunity to grow and leverage your existing skillsets by architecting, migrating and managing software in the cloud.
Benefits for your customers
Help your customers be at the forefront of the digital transformation wave by re-hosting their older hardware, such as Windows Server 2008, to Microsoft Azure now. It’s important to urge your customers to run software or hardware that runs with today’s world, as not only is it GDPR compliant, but it can also save on costs which are usually required to run on-premise servers e.g. maintenance, electricity etc.
With a PAYG tariff, customers only pay for what they use, resulting in a cost-effective and productive business.
What are the next steps?
Are you ready to transform both yours and your customer’s business? To find out more information on end of support and Azure migration, contact your Account Manager now on 0333 332 0888.