Solution
Leaving end of support
End of support isn’t an outage: the machine keeps running, which is exactly what makes the decision easy to postpone. The first missing security patch, by contrast, arrives without warning.
A deadline treated as a project
The inventory dates every expiry
Systems, databases and applications with their end-of-support date beside them. It’s a short list, and rarely kept.
The order follows risk, not age
A server exposed to the internet goes before an older isolated machine. The schedule is built on what would break worst, and at what cost.
Applications are tried before, not after
What runs on the old machine runs on the new one, checked on a staging environment. The Monday-morning surprise is the real cost of these projects.
Rolling back is planned for
Every cut-over has its rollback procedure, written and rehearsed. That’s what lets you run it on a weekday evening rather than over a long weekend.
In practice
- A dated inventory: operating systems, databases, applications and hardware, with their support deadline
- Dependency analysis: what talks to the outgoing machine, and what would break without it
- Destination chosen on the real constraint, from a newer version on site to a Swiss host or a public cloud
- A staging environment where the application is tried before any date is announced
- A cut-over procedure and a rollback procedure, both written and rehearsed
- Clean decommissioning: data extracted, licences stopped, hardware wiped
Systems involved
- Windows Server, Windows and the enterprise Linux distributions
- Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server and the databases in place
- Existing hypervisors and server hardware
- Swiss hosts and public clouds
- Line-of-business software whose vendor dictates its own target version
Service lineServers and hosting →
Which systems
The same work, against each sector’s own constraints. Every card opens the full sector.
Banking and insurance
Core systems past end of support
The platforms carrying the policies outlive their support without a project that justifies replacing them. They move onto a version still supported, with the rollback written down.
Healthcare and life sciences
Instrument workstations past end of support
The machine driving an instrument follows the version its manufacturer dictates. It’s inventoried, isolated and moved before the date rather than after the incident.
Manufacturing
Machines and servers past end of support
The workstation driving a machine doesn’t update like the others. It’s inventoried, isolated and moved on risk rather than on age.
How it runs
Inventory
What runs, on what, and until what date it’s supported. The list often fits on one page and didn’t exist.
Priorities
Risk and cost set side by side, deadline by deadline, so management decides on figures.
Rehearsal
The migration runs end to end on a separate environment, rollback included.
Production
The real cut-over on an announced date, then decommissioning of the old once the watch period has passed.
Test the fit: Leaving end of support
Describe the context, constraints and decision you need to make. The first conversation qualifies scope, boundaries and the next useful step.
Describe the situation