For information about what End Of Support (EOS) means, see our blog what does end of support mean
Microsoft Infrastructure Products are the back-office, or datacentre systems which, behind the scenes, power your users’ desktop experience.
Some examples include:
- Microsoft Windows Server
- Microsoft Exchange Server
- Microsoft SQL Server
When these products reach their end of support (EOS) date, they represent an increasing level of risk for your business unless you upgrade to a supported version of the product.
For infrastructure products, running EOS software makes your business particularly vulnerable to the most common types of cyber attack including:
- Denial of service attacks
- System compromise through remote code execution or wormable exploits
Microsoft Lifecyle Policy
Microsoft has a highly structured product lifecycle policy which helps customers understand and predict exactly when the products they are using in their business are going to reach their end of support date.
Common products and their EOS dates
The table below shows Microsoft infrastructure products that have recently or will be coming to end of support soon, and the recommended products to upgrade to.
Microsoft Product End Of Support Date Recommended Upgrade
SQL Server 2008 & 2008 R2 09/07/2019 SQL Server 2014 – 2019
Microsoft Azure
Windows server 2008 & 2008 R2 14/01/2020 Windows server 2016/2019
Microsoft Azure
Exchange server 2010 13/10/2020 Exchange server 2016/2019
Microsoft 365
SQL Server 2016 13/07/2021 SQL Server 2019
Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 10/10/2023 Windows server 2016/2019
Microsoft Azure
What should I do next?
1.Check in the list above or on the Microsoft support lifecycle page whether you are running EOS products, or products which are about to become EOS.
2.Understand whether you have a business need for running EOS products (such as compatibility with other systems, or lack of budget to upgrade)
3. Talk to us for a free consultation about your options.
How can we help?
We can check whether you are running EOS products, or products which are about to become EOS.
We’ll consider whether you need to continue to use servers on-premise or in a datacentre, or move to the cloud with Microsoft Azure.
Talk to us for a free consultation about your options to move to modern alternatives before the EOS date arrives.
Lucid thinking can help you decide which server/datacentre solution is most effective for you.
