In January 2020, Microsoft ended its support of Windows Server 2008 after 13 years.
What does this mean?
It means that there will be no free security patches and updates released by Microsoft. It means that if you keep using Windows 7 and/or Windows Server 2008/R2, you will be at a huge risk of being exploited by cybercriminals if new vulnerabilities are disclosed.
You can continue using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008/R2 after January 2020, but at your own risk, unless you pay for extended security updates. You might need to do this because you have a legacy application that won’t run on the new operating system.
Why Now?
If a Service Pack is released, then support for the previous Service Pack (or OS version) ends two years later.
All Windows versions have an expiration date for the support of their products. This is usually about 10 years after the initial release. This is done to allow the company to direct more resources to their newer and more exciting versions.
Why do you need to upgrade?
- Compliance issues: For healthcare and e-commerce industries that deal with lots of sensitive customer data, entrusting your data to an out of service technology would be seen as very dangerous.
- Financial burden: Huge costs will be incurred through trying to maintain an out of service OS.
- Security: With Microsoft no longer offering security patches for the products, this leaves your organisation in a vulnerable position from attacks.
- Compatibility: As time goes by you will find fewer and fewer new applications that will work with your old operating system. This may mean having to use older versions of apps that themselves may be out of service.
- Poor performance: All-round performance is just going to be slower on the legacy versions.
Future versions
For a breakdown of all future versions and their expiration dates, you can check out the following link:
https://endoflife.software/operating-systems/windows/windows-server
How can SLNet 6.3 help?
Here at SeattleLab, we are committed to creating software to fully works with Windows Server 2019.
SLNet 6.3 is our first version to have full 64 bit compatibility which allows seamlessly with the latest version of Windows Server.
For a clearer picture of how SLNet from SeattleLab can help your organisation visit our product page or download a free trial of our latest 64 bit version SLNet 6.3 by clicking the link below.