Effective from July 14th 2015, Microsoft and its partners, will discontinue support for its Windows Server 2003 operating system platform.
Codenamed Operation Crescendo by HP, the company plans to have a share of the $1 billion “big cake” as Windows Server 2003 is scrapped. Vice president of HP’s Enterprise Group, Chuck Smith recently said in an interview: “We are all out to this end, our theme is ‘one week, one message, one billion US dollars’.” Dell founder Michael Dell, in December said in an interview: “With the end of Windows Server 2003, we will enter the server replacement cycle, millions of dollars will be replaced by either server consulting and services from the perspective of view, or from the product. perspective, we are still only at the beginning of this cycle. We have updated the entire product line, ready to help clients cope with changes.”
The companies earn revenues not only when customers buy new servers, but also from renewing licenses of their latest Windows operating system. Customers also require help in installing the servers, as well as upgrading the Legacy enterprise software which has been forcing them to continue the use of the Windows Server 2003 platform, in existence for the past 12 years.
To understand the scale of the opportunity, Insight, one of Microsoft’s partners claims 11.9 million servers and 23.8 million copies of Windows Server 2003 are being run around the world.
However, many analysts within Microsoft, like their Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood believe the lion’s share of the estimated $1 billion revenue will be shared by the Microsoft’s partners than the company itself (approx. 75%). As most customers have already signed a contract extension to support Software Assurance, which reduces their costs and prevents payment of fresh licensing fees.
But it’s not all gloom for Microsoft, as the upgrade brings new opportunities for the company to sell its Cloud services software Azure, which entails customers to upgrade to the latest Office 365. In addition, the user account management software Active Directory is expected to sell more copies with the advent of the overhaul.
