Windows Server 2003 Support
Recently, Microsoft released seven security bulletins for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. After July 14, 2015, there will be no more security updates for Windows Server 2003. This means if you’re running Windows Server 2003 on July 15, 2015, you will be immediately vulnerable to any and all security vulnerabilities that may be found that affect Windows Server 2003 from then on. There will not be any security patches for Windows Server 2003 after this date.
A year ago, Windows XP finally went out of support 13+ years after its release. And while Windows Server 2003 isn’t quite as old as Windows XP was (clocking in at 12, rather than 13), this is as big a deal on the server side as Windows XP was on the client side.
Just like we saw a staggering number of people running Windows XP on the eve of its retirement, we’re also seeing a shocking number of people on Windows Server 2003 even now. A recent survey by The Enterprise Strategy Group shows 82 percent of respondents have Windows Server 2003 present in their organization. And 25% of these respondents say their plan for dealing with the end of security support is to “Continue to run Windows Server 2003 without support and maintenance.”
Running an unsupported operating system is something that should be viewed as an operational vulnerability. It’s inherently dangerous and ill-advised. But realistically, if you’re running Windows Server 2003 as you read this, you’re likely not in a position to migrate off of it quickly. Odds are that you’re on this older operating system out of necessity and so may not be able to migrate off of it anytime soon. Click here to checkout the supported upgrade paths from Windows.