Databarracks Launches Windows Server 2003 Into Space
Cloud service provider gives Win2k3 fitting send off as it reaches end of life.
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on July 15, 2015 at 3:03 pmDR provider Databarracks Ltd. has released their tribute to Windows Server 2003, which reached end of life on July 14th.
The company’s team, alongside The University of Surrey’s Electronics and Amateur Radio Society (EARS), launched a Win2k3 disk into space.
Based on mass and the weather conditions on the day, the team predicts the balloon carrying the disk reached an altitude of 100,000 feet (30km) – most commercial aircraft fly at an altitude of 30,000 to 40,000 feet – before bursting and travelling back down to Earth. The curvature of the Earth can be seen quite clearly in the film as the balloon approaches its maximum height.
Peter Groucutt, MD, Databarracks, commented on gesture: “Windows Server 2003 has been such a reliable workhorse for organisations for the last decade. The unparalleled levels of stability it has offered have earned it a special place in the hearts of IT managers worldwide – ours included. There’s almost a feeling of nostalgia when we think about Server 2003 reaching end of life. For us as a company especially – we were founded in 2003 and so Win2k3 has been integral to us from the start. We wanted to give it a fitting send off.“
Despite support reaching end of life, research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) suggests that at the end of 2014 61% of businesses were still reliant on Windows Server 2003. A further study by Bit9 predicts 2.7 million Win2k3 servers will remain deployed post end-of-life. Oscar Arean, Technical Operations Manager for Databarracks says this poses a big risk:
“Continuing to run an unsupported OS after end-of-life will leave you open to vulnerabilities. In addition, applications will no longer be supported by vendors on server 2003. While they may work fine for a while, if you do have an issue, the vendor won’t be able to help. While there are security products available to allow you to keep Windows Server 2003, that option will prove expensive. Additionally, expect IT support companies to increase the cost of support of 2003 boxes – Microsoft are rumoured to be charging around $600 USD per incident.“
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