As discussed elsewhere on the web, there’s another pending wave of cloud migrations coming in the near future.  It has been estimated there are over 85,000 companies still running SQL Server 2008 in some fashion in their environments.

Support for SQL Server officially ended back in 2014, though some extended support options were made available until July of 2019, but that window is now closing.  Microsoft has enabled options for customers to migrate databases to their Azure cloud environment for future use. The numbers go up even farther when you include Windows Server 2008, which it is estimated that 60% of their customer base is still running.

Looking more deeply at this situation, that signals something that many of our customers already know:  It’s difficult to let go of and easily replace legacy applications. They’re paid for, they run well, and change always carries an organizational cost. Not all applications running in customer environments are suited to connect off site to the cloud without additional investments being made to either move the application or redesign telecom connectivity.

At the same time, the path your organization takes into cloud hosting will have repercussions for years to come. It is important to evaluate your specific situation with both short term and long term needs in mind, as the further your organization moves into any specific cloud environment, the more challenging and costly it can be to change providers later on.

At IQ Wired, we pride ourselves on taking an agnostic view towards technology providers, instead focusing our energies on aligning best-fit services for our customers’ specific needs and budgets.  Our experienced technology service managers stand ready to help our customers navigate the challenging waters of planning for these often difficult to understand expenses and keeping those costs at a minimum.