Blog
At Concept, we don't just provide amazing IT Support and IT Services to businesses in the North East of England, we also like to share some of our knowledge and experience whilst providing guidance & insight. Here you will find the latest information, advice and news from Concept. If there are any topics you would like us to cover, please get in touch.
So long Windows 7 - it's been great knowing you!
This month, Windows 7 will turn ten years old; but with age comes retirement and from 14th January 2020, Microsoft will cease to provide further security patches and updates. As with all great products, Windows has been a tale of good and bad where innovation and stability have delighted and tormented users at various times. Most of our clients previously made the jump from Windows XP to Windows 7 - skipping the ill-fated Windows Vista iteration and then staying with Windows 7 to skip the troublesome Windows 8/8.1. Windows 10 has now been with us since 2015 and after 7 updates, it's now a very finely tuned and reliable product to make the switch to.
It's important to ensure that the operating system running on all IT equipment is up-to-date with current security patches installed to prevent security breaches and data loss. Even with anti-virus and malware protection, known security flaws in operating systems can allow hackers into your system to steal data, run crypto-lockers and prevent access to your systems.
Retirement for Windows Server 2008 and SBS 2011
Along with Windows 7, Microsoft is also ceasing support for Windows 2008 based systems from January 14th 2020. The mainstay of the Windows 2008 based family is SBS 2011 which provides all of the key systems Small and Medium sized Businesses rely upon - File Sharing, Email, Remote Access and Database. Microsoft Small Business Server has been a phenomenal software suite since its launch in 1999 (then called Backoffice 4.5) and the last version - 2011, (launched in 2010) was the seventh iteration of the suite.
Now, 10 years since its launch, security patches and updates will no longer be issued. In a cloud-first world, Microsoft has taken the decision not to provide a replacement to the suite which means clients running the SBS suite will need to adopt some cloud-based services instead. Servers are especially vulnerable to security issues due to them being internet-facing and open to the public. Apart from the requirements set out in the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure all systems are patched and secure, the last thing your business needs is an IT outage caused by hackers, crypto-locker or virus.
