63% don’t know what the end of Windows Server 2003 will mean for their business.

A new survey by cloud firm Exponential-e has found that 35% of UK firms are not well prepared for Windows Server 2003‘s end of life on July 14 this year.

The survey of 100 UK IT professionals also found that 63% don’t know what Windows Server 2003’s termination means for their business.

Exponential-e lead technologist Steven Harrison warned that the significance of this end-of-life milestone should not be underestimated.

"In less than 100 days time, there will be no updates to software for Windows Server 2003, which brings serious security and operational risks to an organisation’s infrastructure.

"In addition, once support ends, the continued use of Windows Server 2003 means organisations will likely fail to meet most industry-wide compliance standards and regulations, unless they invest more resource in isolating and protecting servers."

Exponential-e has recommended a four-step process for companies looking to migrate from Windows Server 2003.

Initially, companies should catalogue software and workloads by verifying their current IT environment’s status. Applications and workloads have to be categorised by type, level of criticality, complexity and risk.

Companies should then identify the best target destinations for apps and workloads that feature an on-premise solution or cloud deployments across Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service.

In the last step, the migration should be undertaken using tools and resources that are at the right level to handle the process.

Harrison said migrating away from Windows Server 2003 is an investment in an organisation’s future.

"Despite this, our survey revealed that just 16% of organisations are looking towards a cloud solution during the migration process.

"As part of the End-of-Life activity, we would urge more IT professionals to consider how they can combine their own dedicated hardware with the enhanced functionality of the Hybrid Cloud so that they can use the migration to transition towards a modern infrastructure."