Dell Provides Migration Service For Windows Server 2003 End-Of-Life

Dell is pre-empting the Windows Server 2003 end-of-life deadline this time next year by launching a new migration service that offers businesses a smooth transition over to newer versions of Microsoft’s Windows Server.

The service means that enterprises can move workloads whilst at the same time lower the risks and costs traditionally associated with large-scale migrations of this ilk.

“Dell works with each customer to build a bespoke, step-by-step Windows 2003 migration plan, aligned with the organisation’s business needs. Our end-to-end solution handles every aspect of migration from the data centre to the endpoint, ensuring that any issues are addressed quickly,” said Tim Loake, UK director of Dell Services.

Dell Services’ migration package is made up of four distinct offerings that all help to assist the smooth transition to a newer version of Windows Server. This includes Window Server OS Modernisation Services, Data Centre Transformation Methodology, Application Management Consulting and Global Application Packaging Factory, and ChangeBASE.

“Migration can seem like a burden, but Dell’s service helps to ease the process by providing a solution that is time and cost effective as well as being secure,” Loake added.

Microsoft has already identified that almost 94 per cent of firms using Windows Server 2003 are thinking about migrating applications to a newer version of Windows Server as well as Microsoft Azure.

Extended support for Windows Server 2003 is being removed by Microsoft on 14 July 2015 by which time free patches, update and security fixes will no longer be available and right now there are still around 2.7 million servers in Europe alone running on the service, according to The Register.

For those that still want to use Windows Server 2003 after the cut off date next July, the cost of custom support could run into the hundreds of thousands per year and with the average migration taking around 200 days there’s never been a better time to start moving over.

Image Credit: Flickr (Kasper Duhn)