Dell readies for Windows Server 2003 migration rush

Following on the heels of the cessation by Microsoft of support for the old XP operating system, there is now a 2015 deadline for the end of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 support.

Dell Services has seen this opportunity and decided to be one of the first service providers to make a concerted effort to make a solution available. This has now appeared as the new Windows Server 2003 Migration Service, which is aimed at allowing businesses currently running Windows Server 2003 to transition workloads to the Microsoft Azure cloud or Windows Server 2012 R2, while dramatically mitigating risk and costs associated with migration.

According to Microsoft, 94 percent of companies currently using Windows Server 2003 intend to migrate their applications to a newer version of Windows Server, as well as Microsoft Azure. As they transition, companies must address specific pain points, including assessing their current needs and future demands, finding the proper solutions for legacy applications and identifying which workloads can be moved to the cloud.

Dell’s new service is designed to assist customers in all stages of their Windows Server migration process to meet the 2015 deadline, while ensuring all necessary checkpoints on their migration list are answered.

According to research by Gartner, customers face numerous obstacles during their migration process including having too time left to migrate all the systems that are running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 to a newer version before support ends in July 2015. It also suggests that third-party products may become unsupported as well, triggered by the operating system dates.

Operating servers with unsupported operating systems leaves the datacentre open to future risks due to unfixed security exposures or malfunctioning software, while choosing among the many possible tools and approaches to mitigate the risk is difficult and highly dependent on the individual system and the IT environment.

In the end, according to Gartner, no single solution will address all scenarios, so the best practice is to establish a combination of approaches based on a risk management analysis.

“Enterprises around the world could be placing their data and customers at considerable risk by not migrating off Windows Server 2003 before the deadline,” said Suresh Vaswani, president, Dell Services. “They may also face lack of compliance with various regulatory and industry standards, which could impact their business, particularly in highly regulated industries such as finance or healthcare. We help our customers proactively address these issues and provide a smooth transition.”

Dell Services aims to provide customers with the most comprehensive Windows migration services portfolio. This includes Dell Windows Server OS Modernisation Services, giving customers a guide to flexible IT approaches that map out multiple technology options and deliver innovative technology integration, while increasing automation and reducing manual effort, and Dell Datacentre Transformation Methodology, which helps accelerate server migration while simultaneously mitigating risk by designing, building and validating a step-by-step migration plan unique to each workload and app specification.

It also includes Dell Application Management Consulting and Global Application Packaging Factory, which conducts a full application inventory during the migration process to examine the compatibility of each legacy application and identify the needed remediation for each app, and Dell ChangeBASE technology that automatically analyses applications to uncover compatibility issues with the targeted operating system.

“There is no single migration plan that suits all workloads. Dell Services provides unique solutions to help rank and classify your Windows Server migration pathway based on critical business needs,” said Joe Schoenbaechler, Vice President, Infrastructure Consulting Services, Dell Services. “Dell’s end-to-end expertise addresses migration from the datacenter to the end point, empowering customers to modernize their IT environments with ease.”