Microsoft’s withdrawal of support for Windows Server 2003 on 14 July is looming and means IT departments need to implement their prepared migration plans.

Industry estimates indicate that 20% or so of servers are still running this version of Windows Server, which has now reached the end of its life as far as Microsoft is concerned.

Organisations will have the option to pay a premium for custom support contracts, but some businesses may find that the option to migrate to a newer operating system is out of their control

Computers running the Windows Server 2003 operating system will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks of viruses and other security threats.

But Windows Server 2003 is still extensively used. According to CloudPhysics, which provides big data analytics for datacentres, one in five Windows Server virtual machines (VMs) runs the 2003 version, and thus will be affected by the removal of support.

And while Windows 2003 VM share is declining, given the current rate of decline CloudPhysics estimated that the proportion of servers still running the unsupported OS would only reach a statistically insignificant level in the first half of 2018, three years after support ends.

Dell Software president John Swainson said some organisations are upgrading to Windows Server 2008 as it is less disruptive than going to Microsoft’s newest version, Windows Server 2012 R2. Dell has seen a number of organisations simply migrate to Windows Server 2008, as it is still a supported operating system and does not require the major application reworking associated with shifting the whole Windows Server infrastructure onto Windows Server 2012.

The cloud is another option. Why run a file server on-premises if a cloud service can be used instead? Application servers may be run more cost effectively on the public cloud.

Certainly, moving to the next supported release of Windows Server is not the only approach an IT department can take. Overall, the end of support for Windows Server 2003 represents an opportunity for businesses to reassess their legacy Windows server applications and a chance to drop them or re-engineer them to run on a different platform.