Windows Server 2003 End of Support Looms – A Webinar Recap

It’s no secret – Microsoft support for Windows Server 2003 ends on July 14, 2015.

Last week, Perficient, AppZero and Cisco teamed up for a webinar, Planning & Preparing for Windows Server 2003 End of Life. During the session, the speakers discussed the options and paths available when moving off Windows Server 2003, including the transition to a cloud model, benefits of Windows Server 2012, virtualization on Cisco UCS, and what exactly AppZero can do for your migrations.

First, Steve Andrews, a senior solutions architect at Perficient, explained exactly what end of support/end of life means: no updates, no compliance, no protection. But, the good news is, for those still on Windows Server 2003, there is the opportunity to transform your datacenter by transitioning to a hybrid cloud model, which Steve reviewed. He then showed attendees how to get started:

1. Discover & Assess: Catalog and categorize apps and workloads
2. Target: Identify destinations
3. Migrate: Make the move

You have a variety of target options, from replacing the server hardware or virtualizing with Hyper-V to a new server, to relocating to a cloud service such as Azure IaaS or decommissioning if no longer in use.

Next, Andy Vigil, a consulting systems engineer at Cisco UCS provided background on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) and explained how the Cisco datacenter and fabric computing platform unified computing, networking, storage access, and virtualization resources into one cohesive system. Andy showed how UCS Manager provides you with a single point of contact for all UCS components, a discussed how it integrates with System Center tools.

Finally, Terry Walsh, area sales director at AppZero, talked about using AppZero’s automated migration tool to accelerate migration timeframes with lower cost and less risk. Terry also shared a detailed case study showing how one pharma company had benefited, in terms of effort and time, cost, and project duration, by using AppZero verus a manual migration.

You can watch the one hour webinar replay here.