Time’s Running Out
On October 10th, 2023, Microsoft will cease support for Windows Server 2012. This means you will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, technical support, or online technical content updates.
This leaves the operating system exposed to security threats, and the likelihood of security vulnerabilities and cyber attacks increasing as time goes on.
What can I do?
The three main options to consider can have a significant impact on your long-term IT strategy and so need to be carefully considered.
Option One: Upgrade
The first option is to upgrade the on-premise machine in-place to a supported windows server version of Windows Server 2016 or higher. Whilst removing the impending end of support risk, this option carries a significant implementation effort, and may introduce compatibility issues with any applications currently running on the server. Upgrading may also require purchasing additional licenses, which may undermine ‘cloud first’ strategies.
Option Two: Purchase Extended Security Updates (ESU)
The second option is to purchase ESUs for your on-premise servers. Labelled a last resort by Microsoft, this option requires you to purchase ESUs for a fixed time period of three years for Server 2012. This will provide critical and important rated security updates, but does not include new features, customer-requested non-security hotfixes, or design change requests. The main drawbacks of this option are the cost implications, with ESU’s often costing around 75% of the full licensing cost per year and can represent sunk cost should you upgrade or migrate the server within the ESU’s fixed timeframe. ESUs can also be complex to deploy and manage and can carry a performance impact.
Option Three: Migrate
The third option is to migrate your Windows Server 2012 instances to Microsoft Azure to avail of Microsoft’s offer of free of charge Extended Security Updates (ESU) for servers hosted in Azure. While this option may align with your long-term strategy, and will benefit from the many positives of Microsoft Azure, cloud migration should not be undertaken in haste based on time pressures. Without a well-considered approach, following Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption and Well Architected Frameworks, you are likely to face challenges with the resulting platform in several areas including costs, governance, and compliance.
Given the significant challenges the above options pose. Kainos have created a 4th option in the shape of our Windows Server 2012 Accelerator which solves the immediate challenge while mitigating the implications posed by other options.
Option Four: Kainos Windows Server 2012 Accelerator
Our Windows Server 2012 accelerator combines our existing Azure Landing Zone accelerator with the Azure Arc solution to bring existing Windows Server 2012 systems under management, all whilst remaining on-premise. This provides the benefit of Extended Security Updates (ESU) whilst removing any effort associated with upgrading in place or migrating to Azure. This option also benefits from a Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model for the ESU’s, so should you decide to upgrade or migrate the server later, you have no sunken costs in pre-paid ESUs. Kainos can typically implement our solution in just 1 week, providing a tactical solution to the immediate issue, whilst simultaneously providing breathing room to make the more long-term, strategic decisions around cloud adoption. Additionally, our enterprise grade Azure Landing Zone provides a best practice foundation in Azure, giving you the starting point to build on into the future.
Contact us
Get in touch with our team to explore how our solution can benefit your organisation. Don’t wait until October 10th – secure your servers’ future now.