Businesses Scramble as Microsoft Ends Support for SQL

(Newswire.net — February 23, 2016) Boulder, Colorado — Microsoft Announces Loss of Support for SQL Server 2005 In April 2016. Microsoft has made many changes to their product development life-cycle over the last several years. These product life-cycles are designed to provide support, patches, and security updates for software to end users and organizations. Microsoft is planning to do a little spring cleaning to their support lineup this year and SQL Server 2005 will soon become an unsupported product. Many Government agencies, business organizations and academic institutions use SQL Server to manage their databases and to run their daily operations. Unfortunately, as of April 12, 2016, said establishments need to make the switch if they haven’t already.

For some this process may be familiar; Microsoft recently went through similar support changes as they announced Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 would no longer be supported, back in April of 2014 and July 2015, respectively.

What Does a SQL End of Life Event Mean For Businesses?

What exactly is SQL Server End of Life? This phrase is used to paint a pretty gruesome picture; in short, Microsoft will no longer provide patches, updates, or comprehensive technical support for SQL Server 2005. This poses many risky implications to business end-users and executives. Installing, executing or “maintaining” software that is no longer supported exposes users and the organization(s) to many threats. Most commonly, hackers are able to exploit the older source code; exposing critical security issues and leaving valuable data in the hands of others.

 

Furthermore, rebels utilizing older versions of MS SQL during a disaster or catastrophic event will likely run the risk of their ERP (Emergency Recovery Policy) becoming useless. This would threaten the organization’s valuable information and hinder the recovery process, as there would be no support available to reinstate the lost data. Regrettably, these are liabilities that can hinder daily operations and negatively affect shareholders and/or managing members if left to the last minute.

What To Do If Your SQL Server Has Expired

Fortunately, companies like Royal Discount in Boulder, Colorado have been helping organizations seamlessly manage, upgrade or overhaul their SQL instances. Royal Discount is a Cloud Services and Certified Microsoft Partner; they specialize in helping organizations “clean-up” last-minute licensing issues to make valuable decisions that simplify daily business operations. We asked Trina Johnson, owner and founder of Royal Discount, what options do business owners have should one experience a SQL end of life event, to which she replied:

“There are several different options and methods of updating your business to a compliant, supported version of SQL server. The first and most obvious choice is to upgrade to a newer version (such as SQL Server 2008 or newer). This is an advantageous method as long as the organization is not running an overly complex system. The second and most preferred choice among business owners is to do a fresh install. Fresh installs are typically custom built to an organization’s needs, with the upsell being the ability to scale and grow into the future. If you are unsure of which method is best; download the SQL upgrade advisor and start plugging away, or contact one of our licensing professionals..”

Benefits of SQL Server 2016, Volume Licensing and Microsoft Software Assurance

There are numerous immeasurable benefits to upgrading to SQL Server 2016, including but not limited to being fully compliant, information security conscious, and always up to date with Microsoft support and downloadable updates. With the newest version of SQL, businesses will be able to scale and grow affordably & easily; New features include a server resource governor designed to reduce operational and developmental overhead costs and streamline processor bandwidth for high-load applications. Pair this offering with a real-time analytics engine and bingo – your organization now has access to big data tools, at a fraction of the price. For those concerned about future support lapses and discrepancies with regard to SQL licensing, Microsoft has introduced open licensing solutions to address said threats to BD investments. Software Assurance in short, guarantees that organizations receive the most value out of their software licenses and are not investing in infrastructures which will ultimately provide inferior value when it’s time for upgrades. While Microsoft has a few hurdles left in its race to get organizations away from SQL 2005, it’s clear that the company is taking the right initiatives towards providing clear, fully supported, holistic SQL server pricing options for businesses with multiple license archetype requirements and growth patterns.