New Year’s Resolutions
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions yet? It’s a little ways off, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t already have some ideas forming. Especially if you have Windows 7 or a Windows Server 2008 R2.
Microsoft has announced that it will be discontinuing support for both of these products as of JANUARY 14, 2020. Microsoft will no longer be providing free technical support for these products, and more important to note, they will not be releasing anymore software and security updates.
This is especially important to be aware of if you and your company have certain regulatory requirements for your industry that you have to abide by. It is a good idea to get a start on what will need to happen going forward if this is the case for you.
What This Means
Software is finite. Either it gets updated or completely replaced. And when a company decides to no longer offer updates or technical support for certain software, you can pretty much get in line to attend the funeral. The funeral may not be for a while off still, as the systems will continue to work even after support end for them. Just like typewriters still work, the software will still work – in an outdated capacity. If you decide to continue using the software you will be placing yourself in a compromised playing field, where you don’t know where the bombs are buried. You could experience what the US Government states as “loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of date, system resources, and business assets.”
What To Do
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has some recommendations for this situation.
#1 The most obvious would be to upgrade to a newer operating system.
#2 Get in touch with all your devices that use either of these systems and determine what sort of issue this could create, and asses what the risk would like if you did NOT upgrade.
#3 Establish and activate a plan to systematically migrate to up-to-date operating systems that will be supported in the current future – or employ a cloud based service.
#4 Get in touch with Microsoft and let them give you options for moving forward, including recommendations for upgrades, or what services they will offer going forward for a cost – especially if it turns out you are unable to upgrade (Let’s hope that’s not the case!)
For more information, head over to the Microsoft Q&A page on End of Support products.