Microsoft and HP Launch Program to Get Customers Off Windows 2003

To empower channel partners and customers to migrate legacy Windows 2003 Server installations to newer platforms that integrate better with Azure cloud services, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard are launching a program to help ease the transition.

As Microsoft ends support for Windows 2003 next year, the companies look to the $10 billion opportunity to have partners enroll in the HP Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Migration Program, which they say will help customers migrate rapidly and safely. The last service pack for Server 2003 came out more than six years ago, and the five-year grace period for extended support on the product ends on July 14, 2015.

“The success of customer migrations from Windows Server 2003 depends on thorough planning, disciplined migration execution and post-migration support,” said Sue Barsamian, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Group, HP. “Our migration approach offers partners optimal flexibility and support, whether they are transitioning their customers’ workloads to a private, public or hybrid cloud or modernizing their applications and IT infrastructure to achieve better business results.”

As Windows 2003 end of life nears, the migration program will provide bundles engineered for specific Microsoft workloads. To ensure alignment with Azure cloud services the bundles migrate Server 2003 to Server 2012 R2 and offer Azure as a cloud backup solution.

In addition to training, sales and marketing assistance for partners the migration program will offer special licensing replacement promotions and financial incentives for technology refreshes.

“For three decades, Microsoft and HP have been jointly innovating and delivering products and solutions that provide tangible business results for our shared customers,” said Nick Parker, corporate vice president, Device Partnerships, Microsoft. “Today’s joint Windows Server 2003 EOS program announcement is another example of the differentiated end-to-end offerings that our customers and partners can rapidly and safely deploy, whether on premises with HP’s latest innovative server platforms or in the cloud with Microsoft’s Azure platform.”