With technical support for Windows Server 2008 ending this week, the battle between Microsoft and AWS for the hearts and wallets of its business users is ongoing.
At its re:Invent conference last month, AWS introduced its aptly named AWS End-of-Support (EMP) Migration Program for Windows Server aimed at helping users in their Windows Server migration efforts. 2008. The program promises to make it easier to move users’ existing Windows Server 2008 workloads to newer versions of Windows running on servers in AWS data centers. EMP technology decouples applications from the underlying operating system, allowing AWS partners to migrate mission-critical applications to new versions of Windows Server.
The technology would identify all application dependencies on Windows Server 2008 and then gather the necessary resources for applications to run on the updated version of Windows Server. The software package includes all application files, runtimes, components and deployment tools, as well as an engine that redirects API calls from your application to files in the package, the company said.
Returning in a blog post this week, Vijay Kumar, Windows Server and Azure Product Manager at Microsoft, highlighted the benefits of his company’s products for users undergoing Windows 2008 server migration efforts. Users can deploy workloads Windows Server in Azure in several ways, he wrote, including enterprise virtual machines on Azure, Azure VMware Solutions and Azure Dedicated Host. Users can also apply the Azure Hybrid Benefit service to leverage their existing Windows Server licenses in Azure.
Kumar also noted that users can take advantage of Microsoft’s Extended Security Update program specifically for Windows Server 2008/R2 users, which provides an additional three years of security updates. This can give users more time to plan their transition paths for core apps and services, he wrote.
The battle to own the migration to Windows Server 2008
AWS has long targeted Windows Server users and, in fact, has convinced more than a few IT stores to move to the AWS EC2 cloud environment. According to one analyst, it stepped up those efforts with the introduction of its AWS-Microsoft Workload Competency program for partners last fall.
[AWS] had as many as 14,000 Windows Server clients running on EC2 as of July 2019. That number has increased fivefold from 2015. Meaghan McGrathSenior Analyst, Technology Business Review
“[AWS] had up to 14,000 Windows Server customers running on EC2 as of July 2019,” said Meaghan McGrath, senior analyst at Technology Business Review. “This number has increased fivefold compared to 2015.”
However, Microsoft has stemmed some of the bleeding, McGrath added. For example, the company convinced many of its partners to push its free migration assessment program, which gives users a more accurate estimate of their total cost of ownership by keeping their SQL Server workloads in Microsoft environments. rather than migrating them to AWS. EC2. But the company also exerts a certain financial pressure.
“Since last fall, there has been a caveat in software assurance contracts between [SQL Server] users that made it much more expensive for them to transfer their licenses to another vendor’s hosted environment,” McGrath said. “The other financial incentive is [Microsoft’s] Azure Hyper Benefit program, which provides users with a discount on Azure services for migrating their workloads from licensed software.”
32-bit applications block migration efforts to Windows Server 2008
Last summer, Microsoft officials said the operating system still made up 60% of the company’s overall installed base of servers, a number likely so large because it’s the latest 32-bit version of WindowsServer. Many enterprise users have developed custom applications for the platform, which can be time-consuming and expensive to migrate to 64-bit platforms. Users may also have difficulty migrating a 32-bit application to a 64-bit environment purchased from a reputable third-party developer, usually because that developer has discontinued support for that offering.
Paul Delory
“When you’re dealing with a [Windows Server] 2008, you can’t assume that a 64-bit version of this application will be available,” said Paul Delory, research director at Gartner. “Users should coordinate with all of their vendors from whom they have purchased commercial software to find out if they support their application on the new operating system. If this is not the case, you must take into account the associated costs.”
However, the additional expense of adapting your existing 32-bit application to Windows Server 2008 is not as costly as maintaining your existing versions of the operating system and associated applications. With the product rolling out of technical support this week, users will need to pay for extended support from Microsoft, which could double the cost of technical support they received under their original services contract.
“You can access Extended Support, which gives you three years of updates, but that requires you to have Software Assurance,” Delory said. “Extended support costs you 75% of your annual license costs, and SA [Software Assurance] is an extra 25%, which is twice as much.”
He said a practical and less expensive solution for users facing this situation is to consider switching to a SaaS-based offering such as Office 365 or a similar offering with the same capabilities.
“Something like [Office 365] will be the path of least resistance for many companies because it offers them the opportunity to avoid some of these issues,” Delory said. “You can make those problems someone else for a reasonable monthly fee.
Other options for users moving away from a Windows Server 2008 migration are much less appealing. They can leave the server in place and mitigate vulnerabilities as best they can, Delory said, or place it behind a firewall and only whitelist certain IP addresses or leave certain ports open.
“You can use an intrusion prevention system to detect vulnerabilities, but that system must understand Windows Server 2008 vulnerabilities and be able to maintain them across all of your applications,” Delory said.
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