As whole world is getting ready to get migrated from Window XP and 2003 to newer versions (https://www.windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/lifecycle), windows system administrators are keeping eye on their server as Windows Server 2003 will reach its end of life on 14th July 2015. Its means there will be no new patches and security updates and your mission critical server can give huge business loss. It is being estimated that there are as many as 10 million machines that still running on WS2003.
Definitely, it’s a big task for system administrators. Either they need to build the server freshly or have to migrate the applications running on it.
So what options do we have to avoid this loss?
Window Server 2008/2012:
Yes, this is good option and an easy way. But you need to check your hardware feasibility and again after sometime Microsoft will announce end of life these too. One needs to pay good amount in purchasing license and keep on upgrading its hardware after every new release. On other hand you will get good support and will bring some new features like Hyper –V and increase in server performance as well as security
Linux:
Linux is no more considered to be platform to run web services and open source database servers. It provides a series of services including Web services, network services, databases, NFS shares, CIFS shares, print services, network intrusion detection, performance monitoring, log services and even .NET hosted websites and services. It has happened due to Novell and dozens of volunteer developers. Now Mono Project allows .NET developers to use Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Linux as they do it equivalent Windows hosted sites. Linux supports all major programming languages like C#, Oracle databases and just about every possible network service or enterprise database, with the exception of SQL Server. However, Linux does run the closely related Sybase Server from which Microsoft derived SQL Server. Switching to Linux isn’t as difficult as you might believe. I personally advice CENT OS as it’s highly customizable even at kernel level. Last but not least, stability of Linux makes it first choice for many companies and administrators.
Commercial UNIX:
Commercial UNIX isn’t as flexible to transition as that of Linux, but it’s still possible. The major UNIX vendors like IBM and HP will definitely help you which will results in more scalable and stable echo system than Windows but cost will play a crucial role here.
But the time is now to begin your migration away from Windows Server 2003. You have less than a year left. Start now and you won’t have to feel rushed or pressured. July 14, 2015 is your deadline and your finish line. It’s a big task starting from purchasing hardware to migration of all application, database etc.