Extended support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 officially ends next month. We know, it is hard to let go after ten years, but the time has come.
With the end of support, security updates and hotfixes will no longer be available from Microsoft. Unsupported software means increasing vulnerability to data issues and exposing other devices and applications of SQL Server to these same vulnerabilities.
By continuing to run SQL Server 2005, you are placing your organisation at risk. As recently highlighted with the Royal Melbourne Hospital Pathology hack, the results of continuing to run technology environments with obsolete software, servers or operating systems can be catastrophic.
It’s not an unexpected development, as SQL Server 2005 has been in the “extended support” phase of its lifecycle since April 2011. But as with its other server products approaching end of life, Microsoft is pushing existing SQL Server users to migrate to newer products in the SQL Server family, or to Microsoft Azure’s database platform.
These newer versions enable you to deliver business-critical performance, maintain security and compliance, deliver faster data insights, and optimise your data infrastructure-all using familiar, trusted tools. The Azure SQL Database adds the benefit of transitioning infrastructure costs to an operational expense, reducing infrastructure management, and extending agility and scalability.
Aside from the obvious security risk, the key benefits of upgrading include:
- Business-critical performance
Business-critical applications with a new in-memory OLTP engine can deliver on average 10 times and up to 30 times transactional performance gains. - Platform for hybrid cloud
Designed to work in a hybrid environment that spans on-premises and cloud solutions with Microsoft Azure. - High availability
Greater uptime, faster failover, improved manageability, and better use of hardware resources. - ExpressRoute compatible
You can greatly extend availability, speed and security by deploying ExpressRoute for a direct, private connection from your sites to Microsoft Cloud Services including Azure (and Office365).
Forrester Consulting have analysed the ROI of deploying and using later incarnations. The Microsoft-commissioned report showed an ROI of 113 percent, and highlighted multiple benefits across resource productivity, support requirements, security and software and hardware savings. The report can be downloaded here (registration required).
To better mitigate your risk, create and implement a migration plan, or simply access ExpressRoute to improve your Azure performance, contact the blueAPACHE team.