Microsoft small business server end of life

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Showing results for. The following list represents products retiring or reaching the end of support in Upon retirement or end of support, there will be no new security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates. Go here to learn about Fixed and Modern Lifecycle policies and service packs. If you have any questions regarding support for a product, please contact your Microsoft Account Representative.

If you need technical support, visit the Microsoft Support website. The following products, governed by the Modern Policy , will retire in The following product releases, governed by the Modern Policy , will end support in The following products and releases, governed by the Fixed Policy , will end support in Your replacement server solution may step away from Microsoft altogether, although that may be a steeper learning curve that you are willing to experience.

Consulting with an IT support team familiar with Microsoft products will help to define your business needs and select the best option going forward. Windows Server is the most up-to-date OS option for small businesses. Using Windows Server may be the best fit, as there will be less of a learning curve for users and IT service teams, but compatibility may still be an issue particularly with legacy applications.

The server can be used to create virtual machines which can be isolated and quarantined if a security threat is detected. These shielded virtual machines can be secured tightly using layers of access restrictions.

One benefit of using Windows Server as your business server is the ability for it to generate containers. Be aware that, like with Small Business Server, this program will likely be superseded in years.

This may not be a problem for some businesses — it all depends on your end goals for IT and operational capacity. This is likely going to be the best solution for many small businesses.

It includes the full suite of Microsoft Office software which forms the backbone of almost any business systems. Updates, patches and fixes are all deployed automatically with no requirement from the inhouse IT team, this can save valuable hours and no need to chase up chronic update deferrals. Device management and configuration can be managed centrally which can also make life easier for the IT team and helps to manage remote working staff devices.

This option is attractive to many smaller operations because there is no expensive initial licencing or infrastructure costs in comparison to hosting your own server. Instead, Microsoft bills per user per month with additional fees for bolt-on support packages.

Be aware that Microsoft is not a monolithic option — you can choose between Business and Enterprise options. There are three price points and model differences for each edition. Each offer comprehensive solutions, and your needs and the future needs of the business will influence which is the best fit.

Enterprise E3 brings all the best security features and data encryption, while Business Premium gets the job done with Exchange email and SharePoint included. If you need to preserve your SBS content but are not keen to migrate or are concerned about data transfer or loss, you may like to speak with an IT consultant to arrange virtualising your SBS into the cloud. It can reduce overall costs and the management and security of the servers are maintained to strict standards. As the maintenance of the servers are conducted as part of a service package, there are often reduced overheads which can alleviate financial costs in the workplace.

It may also preserve the operational life of legacy applications. There are steps you can take to prepare for a known end of life occurrence. The process outlined below is a valuable place to start when preparing for the SBS changeover, but the same questions can be used whenever another application will become unsupported. Transitioning to the new software can be a daunting process and its understandable that teams would be reluctant to pull the trigger. But, with the end of life support coming closer and Microsoft refusing to extend the life span, what options do small businesses need to think about if there are going to be no more security and software patch updates from Microsoft?

Well, call me cynical, but Microsoft want to move you to their big brother software licensing model, which frankly earns them more money. By removing updates and support, it means businesses will want to move off SBS after July , forcing many businesses into quick fix solutions costing far more than that need to pay. Think about this for a moment, your email was handled by Exchange with Outlook as the software that users loved , and the database was SQL server with custom software that the users related to and you ran your business with.

If Microsoft make it difficult or expensive to replace small business server with an enterprise solution in house, you are likely to move data to their expensive cloud.