Sometimes in life we need an upgrade to take advantage of the latest and greatest.  And technology is no different.  We’re referring to SQL Server 2008/R2 which is reaching end of support.  On July 9, 2019 Microsoft will no longer support these servers.

Why does this matter?
Well, first off the end of SQL Server 2008/R2 can have serious implications for your business, and you need to take action to ensure your business is not vulnerable to security threats. Did you know that unpatched servers are a considerable risk to an organization’s security? In fact, in 2017, the most massive security breach documented affected 140 million users and was caused by an unpatched server.

What are your options?
Thankfully, you have several options as Microsoft has allowed for various scenarios depending on what is best for your business and its current and future state. AMTRA can help you determine what scenario is best for you. Here are some choices. 

• Migrate to Azure Managed Instance and get benefits of a fully managed SQL Server offering 
  End of support is an ideal time to transform your IT environment with the cloud. You can move your SQL Server 2008, and 2008 R2 deployments with no application code change and near-zero downtime to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance. This is a fully-managed PaaS solution with near 100% compatibility to your on-premises SQL Server, which provides automatic patching, version updates, high-availability and automatic backups so that you can focus on your business data rather than spending cycles managing your SQL Servers.
  
  

• Migrate to Azure IaaS and benefit from three years of extended security updates and instant computing infrastructure
  For situations where you are running critical legacy applications on SQL Server 2008 that cannot be upgraded but are still required for business operations, Microsoft gives you the option to migrate to your VMs to the Azure Cloud platform and receive three years of extended security updates to SQL 2008. Doing so allows you to reuse your existing licensing and gives the organization the time and flexibility to map out your upgrade plan to either a new version of SQL or Azure Managed Instance.

• Upgrade on-premises environments and stay protected
  For apps and data that you want to keep running on-premises, its recommended that you upgrade to SQL Server 2017 to get improved data management features with strong security. SQL Server 2017 is the new standard for performance and efficiency and includes built-in security features to protect your business. For on-premises servers that need more time to upgrade, you will be able to purchase Extended Security Updates for three more years if you need to keep running your SQL databases on SQL 2008/2008 R2.

The time is right to upgrade, migrate and modernize legacy workloads.

There has not been a better time to migrate and modernize legacy workloads in the cloud. You can expect to gain operational efficiency, reduce infrastructure and licensing costs, and empower your development teams with the tools to deliver value faster to their business.  Contact one of our cloud experts today info@amtrasolutions.com.

Photo credit | https://blog.gobiztech.com/sql-server-2008-end-of-support