Several key Microsoft products used for running SAP workloads will be reaching their end of support in the next 18 months. If your company is running a software that will soon be out of support, now is the time to begin planning for an upgrade.

Microsoft lists the end of support for all of its products on its lifecycle policy site, and as a helpful summary they have also published a list of their key softwares that will be reaching the end of support before 2020.

Many of these softwares won’t have a bearing on SAP customers, but the important dates to note are:

- SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 will no longer be supported on July 9, 2019.

- Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will no longer be supported on January 14, 2020.

The above software versions were heavily adopted in the SAP community and are still prevalent in the space today. If any of your SAP environments are running on the above software, it is important that you begin the upgrade process as soon as possible.

Running an SAP environment on an unsupported operating system is ill-advised for a number of reasons.

Lack of Security Updates

When software is out of support, it no longer receives security updates from Microsoft. When new exploits are found in standard Microsoft code, your software will not be secure. Insecure software leaves companies vulnerable to failed audits, compromised customer and business data, and ransomware attacks.

Incompatible Software

SAP was designed to run on supported Microsoft software. New service packs and SAP notes are not tested on archaic software and could potentially not work as intended. SAP has no requirement to support systems running on unsupported operating system or databases.

Poor Performance

SAP environments perform significantly better on modern operating systems and databases. Upgrading to supported software will have the added benefit of improving SAP’s overall performance.

Do you run any mission-critical workloads on software nearing the end of support? Would you like for CONTAX to review your existing software and supply a report of how long you will be supported on your given software?

Please contact us for more information at info@contax.com.