Friday, February 3rd 2023
Microsoft Extends ESU Support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 on Azure
Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 customers still represent a large group, as Microsoft has announced an additional year of Extended Security Updates (ESU) with a caveat. Only available for Microsoft Azure customers, the ESU program will allow Windows Server 2008 and R2 users on Azure cloud to get security updates until January 9, 2024. By no means is this not a free program, and Microsoft will bill this extensively as it is available internationally. Many customers are forced to join the ESU program for their Windows Server 2008 and R2 systems, as upgrading the OS to the latest version is not always possible without significant downtime or a hardware update.
The following customer base has legibility to the fourth year of the ESU program:
Source:
Microsoft
The following customer base has legibility to the fourth year of the ESU program:
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
- Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
- Windows Embedded POSReady 7
- Windows Embedded Standard 7
- All Azure virtual machines (VMs) running Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems on Azure, Azure Stack, Azure VMWare Solutions, or Azure Nutanix Solution.
12 Comments on Microsoft Extends ESU Support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 on Azure
Only people with "free" (you can interpret that how you want) OS installations lose out... by being forced off old serial number registration methods to newer ones where the "free" will no longer apply. Unless they are not concerned about security issues. And for a non-critical server, that is OK. For a critical service server, for heavens sake, update.
I am still running a W2003 server on Atom hardware. It is non-critical. It has received no updates in a long while. I lose no sleep over it.
Or if they do, that they can do anything about it, and hell no they're not going to pay to MS at all
But disagree with your second. If the hardware is still suitable, then it is just an OS migration. And that does not cost tens of millions. In fact, the latest versions of WS are not just more robust, they are more efficient too, and have more optimal allocation of tasks against CPU resources. It's a no-brainer for a corporation to migrate.
I also question your math. If a server network costs tens of millions to replace, then I would suggest there are a very significant number of users that makes the license and support fees far greater than you are thinking.
Lazyness, incompetence and cheapskating. That's basically it. If some production line system has a dos script or some interface or whatever that for some reason is only compatible with some weird version of windows is running fine why spend money and resources to keep it up to date?
What could possible go wrong? - famous last words... It would seem so, but there's a whole world of applications and devices that are incompatible (or not validated to work reliably) with new versions of windows. Companies can usually replace a computer easily enough without much fuss, the problem is the instrumentation that might be attached or interacts with it.
Usually and hopefully those systems are all airgaped but it's always an increased liability if for some reason they are mistankely put on a network or just fail at the worse time possible.
The workstations does not need any of these ... updates.