Windows Server 2003 End of Life

On July 14, 2015, Microsoft will end support for Windows Server 2003.

What does this mean for your business?
This means no more updates or patches from Microsoft, which can result a less secure and less stable infrastructure for your business.

• Maintenance Costs – running legacy servers is expensive. Intrusion detection systems, advanced firewalls and network segmentation are required to protect a now vulnerable Windows Server 2003 platform. You will also have increasing cost from maintaining aging hardware.

• No Updates – there will be no more updates to fix bugs, performance issues and security vulnerabilities. To put this into perspective, 2013 saw the release of 37 critical updates for Windows Server 2003/R2. Past the end of life date, these critical issues will remain unfixed leaving you open to cybersecurity dangers such as malicious attacks or electronic data loss.

• No Compliance – once support ends, your organization will almost certainly fail to meet industry wide compliance standards. Regulations such as HIPAA require regulated industries to run on supported platforms. The impact is twofold: Non-compliance could result in the loss of business, while high transaction fees and penalties from non-compliance could dramatically increase the cost of doing business.

• Compatibility Issues – new software and hardware devices will not be built to integrate with Windows Server 2003. Sticking with a legacy server means you will likely run into compatibility issues and may not be able to run new instances of software or communicate with the latest devices.

Visit Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 End of Support page for more information.

 

Contact a BizTech Solution Advisor at 419.539.6922 or via email to start your migration process to a more current server.

Think your business is too small for a server? Think again.

In today’s data-driven economy, your employees need the latest notebooks, smartphones and tablets to keep up with the speed of business.

But for every small business, there comes a point when you realize that all this additional technology isn’t making things easier, it's making your IT infrastructure ever more disorganized.

That’s when you need to think about adding a server to reel in your hectic technology environment. Think your business is too small to need a business server? If you’ve used any of the following infamous last words, it’s time to think again:

“We’ve gotten along without a server so far.”
You probably didn’t realize it, but the second you added additional desktops, notebooks, smartphones or tablets to your original office PC, you effectively created a peer-to-peer computing network—multiple machines that are connected without a centralized hub.

The problem with this sort of loosely defined IT environment is that as you add more and more to the mix, you increase the amount of redundant operations that all these computers are performing. The longer this cycle goes on, the more inefficient your system becomes.

Adding a business server—even from day one—can help you better protect your data sharing, allow you to access shared information from anywhere and with any device and help avoid disastrous losses of information.

“I’m a business man, not an IT director.”
Your business might be too small to staff an IT department, but that doesn’t mean it’s too small for smart data management. With the latest SMB enterprise options, you don’t need to be a tech genius to set up, manage and protect your business computing system.

The ProLiant MicroServer series is small, easy to manage and powerful enough to support all your business IT needs. These SMB-inspired servers are designed to make adding new drives, peripherals or capabilities a snap—so you can add “IT Superstar” to your title.

“Why waste money on a server that’s going to be outdated in a few months?”
Just like the rest of your business, you need technology that is flexible enough to grow along with your needs. That’s where the HP ProLiant ML server series comes into play.

HP ProLiant servers allow you to start small—providing low-risk networking, shared data services and internal storage at a low cost. Then, as your business grows, these highly expandable servers make it easy to add capabilities, so you can support branch offices, offsite technology or remote employees without reinvesting in a whole new server system.

And by linking your new server to your current data storage solutions, you get peace-of-mind from knowing that critical data is secure and safely stored away.

“Our budget is tight—we can’t afford a server.”
When you understand the value that a centralized IT environment provides, you’ll realize you can’t afford not to have a server. You can find low-end servers for a few hundred dollars, but for the needs of a growing small business, expect to pay somewhere between $2,000-5,000.

“We’re too small to need a server.”
By now you know that you’ll soon be eating those infamous words. Luckily, purchasing, managing and expanding a server to consolidate all your business technology needs has never been easier. Even the smallest business is big enough to warrant the simplicity, collaboration and security that a business server provides.

Contact a Solution Advisor at 419.534.3010 or at info@computerworkstoledo.com for more information about servers for your small business.

Content from HP- http://h30458.www3.hp.com/us/us/smb/1084955.html?jumpid=em_taw_US_jun11_eb-iss_1316772_hpgl_us_1084955_1&DIMID=1172972432&DICID=taw_jul11&mrm=1-4BVUP