What Role Should Solutions Providers Play In Business' Migration From Windows Server 2003?
July 14 will be the end of service (EOS) for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. And although a sense of urgency to migrate to a new solution has been increasing over the past few weeks, there are still many businesses — some of your IT clients and prospects — who are still at the beginning of the process. David Brisbois, senior manager of assessment and technology deployment services consulting for Softchoice, says, “A lot of the customers are aware of the issue. They don’t have time to address it.”
Jason Bero, Microsoft practice lead for Softchoice, explains that one reason businesses could be struggling with the decision is that “it’s not an upgrade. It’s a migration. It’s not a linear path.” Bero says it’s a chance for businesses to consider workloads and consider how to best handle each — or whether they are needed at all anymore. Businesses could be in the process of a decision to move to cloud solutions such as Exchange and Office 365, employing virtualization, or finding ways to replace solutions that were built for Windows Server 2003. “Too many options make the process slower,” Bero comments.
Brisbois says the Windows Server 2003 End of Support TechCheck can help with the decision. “It helps reduce options as fast as possible,” he says. He adds this exercise should be done with a solutions provider partner. “A lot of IT departments aren’t living and breathing their options,” Brisbois explains. “Most [IT departments] don’t have the expertise to evaluate all the options. Jason’s team is the expertise.”
Bero says solutions providers will find migration from Windows Server 2003 will require a more consultative approach up front. And as a decision is made for each workload, your client could need you even more. When a business selects different options for different workloads, you introduce more or different technology into the environment. “They need to manage all of that. Maybe internally they can’t or don’t want to. They’ll look to a partner. Managed services is a large opportunity.” In addition, Bero says there is an opportunity to expand the use of analytics that show end user performance and their use of solutions.
Brisbois adds beyond installation of new solutions, solutions providers can also assist with, for example, training, developing new apps, ongoing maintenance, and securing the new environment: “You can absorb the non-business serving tasks.”
Not Migrating Is Not An Option
If a business asks what happens if they don’t migrate, Bero says the top risk is security. “Patching will no longer be supported. They will be vulnerable to attacks or downtime,” he says, adding, “Apps might not continue to run — connections break. Network compatibility could be disrupted.”
There is also a compliance issue for some clients — those in finance, legal, healthcare, and retail markets, for example — that will not be in compliance with industry regulations or standards if they continue to run Windows Server 2003 after its EOS date. Some could even be forced to shut down due to being designated as a security/compliance risk.
“It’s partly the partners’ responsibility to make sure clients understand the consequences,” Bero says.
For more information, visit the Windows 2003 hub on the Softchoice website, or contact Softchoice.