“Customers needing an on-premises solution may upgrade to Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019. Customers can also lift-and-shift to Azure Virtual Machines, including Azure Dedicated Host, Azure VMware Solution, and Azure Stack (Hub, HCI, Edge), to get three additional years of extended security updates at no cost.” Azure SQL Managed Instance is fully managed and always updated (PaaS). In an announcement earlier this year, Microsoft made the following recommendation: “Microsoft recommends customers migrate applications and workloads to Azure to run securely. As such, ESU will be available for Win Server 2012 until the 13 th October, 2026. After this date, there is no option to get support at all. Should you really need more time – Microsoft does have the previously mentioned ESU that will give you and additional three years of support. If you have legacy applications that you are concerned about, you can address these with Azure Virtual Desktop, which will allow you to migrate to Azure with peace of mind. So if time is an issue to do a full migration, the Azure path is still worth consideration. If you are considering your options, it’s worth keeping in mind that if you migrate to Azure with an existing Windows 2012R2 server you automatically get access to extended support from Microsoft via their Extended Security Update (ESU). It reached its mainstream end date over four years ago, on the 9 th October, 2018.Īs a standard end of life procedure from Microsoft, after the 10 th October 2023 you will no longer receive regular patches or security updates, leaving your business exposed to significant risk as well as potentially lead to increased cyber insurance costs.

Originally released in 2012, Windows Server 2012 has been in service for ten years. If you have not yet made any plans to transition to Azure, or another solution, now is the time to start. The official end of support date for Windows Server 2012 is 10 th October, 2023. If any of your business systems run on this OS, then you have a decision to make. It is less than a year until Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 operating system reaches its end of life.

Windows server 12 end of life