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Half of Windows Server 2003 fans will miss July's security cut-off

Please, sir, can we have a Custom Support Agreement?

More than half of companies are now expected to miss the deadline to quit Windows Server 2003 before Microsoft’s 14 July end-of-extended-support cut-off point.

Many will seek security cover through Microsoft Custom Support Agreements (CSAs) charged at $600 per server, or reckon on having in place their own plans for coping.

Firms in the normally risk-averse financial services sector feature highly among those who will shoot past the July date. Many of these — nearly half — will sign CSAs.

The findings come courtesy of Microsoft consultant and SI partner Avanade, which surveyed 100 companies on their state of Windows Server 2003 migrations.

Avanade in November estimates just a fifth would miss the July date.

It's just two weeks until Windows Server 2003 — released 12 years ago — slips out of extended support and Microsoft no longer releases security fixes.

That means, no new patches from engineers at Redmond to cover new vulnerabilities or hacks discovered or written.

Avanade said 51 per cent will run past the 14 July cut-off date. Twenty seven per cent will miss it by more than three months, and 24 per cent by more than a year.

A fifth in each of the categories of financial services, retail, distribution and transport, and of “other commercial” all accepted the risk, but are OK with it.

Manufacturing seemed less sure – eight per cent are comfortable with the risk.

The reason for companies' apparently relaxed attitude is split. Forty per cent of financial services firms planned on signing a CSA with Microsoft, compared with 28 per cent in manufacturing, 24 per cent in retail, distribution and transport, and 20 per cent in “other” commercial.

CSAs will see Microsoft continue to deliver new patches for customers who take out a deal. But CSAs are not an option for all: they're only available for Microsoft Premier customers, for a fee of $600 per machine — and only “as a last resort option to help bridge the gap during large and complex migrations,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Reg.

Microsoft offered CSAs to Windows XP hold-outs after the end of extended support in April 2014, but it's being less generous with Windows Server 2003.

Windows XP CSAs could run year-on-year for up to three years, doubling in price each year - but Windows Server 2003 CSAs are limited, according to Avanade.

Paul Veitch, Avanade head of application development and UK cloud lead, said the fact Microsoft had offered CSAs for Windows XP after telling people there’d be no additional support, and that they simply had to migrate, had given the wrong impression, essentially that Microsoft had been holding out and then that crumbled.

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