Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle policy was originally announced on October 15, 2002 and the policy update went into effect June 1, 2004. The Support Lifecycle policy provides for at least 5 years of mainstream support followed by 5 years of extended support.
After 10 years of support, Windows 2000 Server will finally end support on July 13, 2010. As part of this retirement, updates – including security updates – will no longer available. While individual custom support agreements would enable customers to continue running in a supported environment after this date, most IT professionals would agree that the time has come to plan a migration to newer versions of Windows Server. In addition, Windows Server 2003 will be entering extended support at the same time as Windows 2000 end of life. More details on Microsoft’s Lifecycle policy can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy.
Newer Microsoft® Windows® Server operating systems like Windows Server 2008 and R2 represent a significant advancement over the Microsoft Windows 2000 and 2003 families of operating systems. Each edition builds on the strengths of previous versions and leverages new innovations in technology to provide a platform that is more productive, dependable, and connected than ever before. New and improved file, print, application, Web, and communication services provide a more robust, comprehensive platform for your mission-critical business resources. Integrated features such as the Active Directory® service and enterprise-class security services allow you to provide secure yet flexible access to all the resources your users need. And new capabilities such as Microsoft’s server virtualization technology Hyper-V provide virtualization opportunities previously unavailable, and at no additional cost.
This document provides an overview of the migration process and provides information on some of the basic decisions you will make during the process. This document also provides pointers to the set of documents that provide more detailed instructions on moving from Windows 2000 to newer versions of Windows Server.
There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of improvements to Windows Server since the release in 2000. A complete and detailed comparison of newer versions of Windows Server to Windows 2000 Server is beyond the scope of this paper, but some of the advantages include:
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