Windows Server 2003 End-of-Support: Sales Reference Sheet

The risks are real: End-of-Support is July 14, 2015No Security No compliance Higher Total Cost of

OwnershipLower competitiveness

• 37 critical updates were released in 2013 for WS 2003

• Failure of one security patch may impact your customer’s entire IT infrastructure i.e. one unsupported server exposes the entire infrastructure to security vulnerabilities

• No third party support will be available after the final EOS date

• Unsupported servers can easily bypass applications, even those that are White Listed and impact your customer’s entire infrastructure

• Windows Server 2003 servers will likely fail compliance audits for HIPAA (healthcare), SOX (accounting and IT), and PCI (credit card processing)

• Lack of compliance may lead to suspension of certifications and notification of the company’s inability to maintain its systems and customer information's

• Staying put costs more in the end. Power, cooling, Rackspace, hardware maintenance and downtime cost more in the long term

• Finding trained IT staff to maintain an unsupported operating system may also be difficult can increase total IT spend

• Downtime due to aged infrastructure takes time away from focusing on core business priorities

• Failure to take advantage of new technology and applications may hinder the company’s success

Customer benefits to upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2Microsoft has delivered a number of technology advancements in Windows Server over the last ten years. By migrating to Windows Server 2012 R2 on a modern server, your customers can take advantage of the following capabilities.

Server Virtualization Disaster Recovery and Cost Effective Storage

Simplified Management

Full Support and Pre-installed for Simplicity

• Increase uptime by taking advantage of the flexibility to move running virtual machines between servers

• Maximize your customer’s hardware investment, and utilize the computing power they are paying for

• Better scalability to run the most demanding workloads

• Improve business continuity, and reduce the risk of data loss in the event of a system failure

• Easily allocate storage to users on a “just-enough” and just-in-time” basis, to save on costs

• Quickly scale storage up or down as needed at a fraction of cost by leveraging your customer’s existing hardware

• Built on standards helps streamline management across compute, storage, and networking resources.

• Provides employees the flexibility to work from anywhere while ensuring that corporate data is completely protected

• Manage costs with active warranties, and availability of parts and services

• Improved protection from security threats with latest updates

• Ease of deployment, installation, and setup to save time and cost

You can’t afford to wait!Start your migration planning today – ask your customers to make it a priority. The time required to migrate Windows Server 2003 will vary based on the type of workloads and custom apps running. For example, a simple file server app will take less time to migrate than a line of business app. Start planning today, and remember to include time for discovery, migration, and testing before going live.

Educate Windows Server 2003 end-of-support is July 14, 2015. Reach out to your customers now!-Reiterate the risks of running an unsupported IT infrastructure-Highlight the benefits of Windows Server 2012 on a modern server-Take steps to plan and execute a migration strategy for your customers

Sell Sell the benefits of Windows Server 2012 R2 on a modern server. Lead with technology!-More powerful servers for improved processing and throughput-Reduced server footprint-Simplified management-Full support and Pre-installed for simplicity

Migrate Migrations take time. Get started now! -Discover – Catalog your software and workloads-Assess – Evaluate the apps and workloads by type, criticality, complexity, and risk-Target – Identify your target destination -Migrate – Make the move! Leverage tools and resources to implement a successful migration

Recommended next steps

US-CERT, part of the US Dept of Homeland Security issues alert on Windows Server 2003 End of Support: http://aka.ms/oqid66

What are customers saying?

http://aka.ms/virtualizationempirecls

FAQs

1 Can I upgrade from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012 R2?

No, Microsoft does not support a direct, in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2. Customers will need to find new targets for the applications, data, and services running on Windows Server 2003. Possible targets include new hardware servers, new virtual machines on existing hardware, or cloud options.

2 What should partners be doing to prepare for the migration and help customers?

OEMs should ensure that hardware offers are established and support is available to assist with any hardware refresh activities.

3 What if a customer just can't afford to upgrade?

In the end, not migrating is more costly. Customers will need to pay for dramatically improved security systems to isolate unprotected WS03 servers, as well as the costs for maintaining aging hardware. Customers should ask themselves why they would spend money with no additional benefits and greater risk, when the money could go toward the benefits and innovation opportunities of migrating.

4 How do hardware requirements for Windows Server 2012 R2 differ from Windows Server 2003?

Hardware requirements for Windows Server 2012 R2 can be found here. Processing power has improved since 2003, and with this, the minimum 133-400 MHz required to power Windows Server 2003 and the applications of its time have increased to support the applications and workloads of today. Windows Server 2012 R2 requires a 1.46 GHz 64-bit processor.

65%

savings on hardware and maintenance costs

Running several servers on the same physical machine is more cost-effective. But having Hyper-V virtualization software included with our Windows Server licenses meant even greater savings.

Henrik FlorydIT Manager, OTRUM

Had we not had Hyper-V Replica in place when the hurricane struck, we would've easily lost a week's worth of business, but more importantly, we would've lost clients... It's so reassuring to know that if our primary server goes down for any reason, we can be back up and running within 20 minutes. Hyper-V Replica works like magic.

Aaron I. KatsmanOwner, Law Office of Aaron I. Katsman, P.C.

30%

reduction in IT cost

By combining next-generation HP blade servers with Windows Server 2012, we have reduced our server footprint by a factor of 12. A 12:1 footprint consolidation is huge.

Alan Bourassa,Chief Information Officer

EmpireCLS Worldwide, Chauffeured Services

http://aka.ms/disasterrecovery

Add your specific off hereUse this space to add your own specific offer