end of support

Bye Bye Exchange 2010

Along with its brothers ‘Server 2008’ and ‘Windows 7’ End of Support is coming for Exchange 2010 Environments ( SBS 2008 ) in January 2020

What does this mean?
This means that Microsoft will not be releasing any security patches for your email server anymore so security related problems will not be resolved and could be exploited to gain access to your emails. Email servers especially will live on the internet for services such as Webmail and Phone Syncing so it is crucial for security that these are up-to-date.

Migration plans

For this is really one of two

  • Office 365 in the cloud

  • Exchange 2016 on Premise

Contact us today to speak to our migration wizards

Office 365 will drop TLS 1.0 and 1.1 Support starting 31st October 2018

Microsoft has announced that as of October 31st ( Moved from the 1st March ) it will be dropping TLS 1.1 Support and only allowing TLS 1.2

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2018/02/09/an-update-on-office-365-requiring-tls-1-2/

What you need to do 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4057306/preparing-for-tls-1-2-in-office-365

1 ) Check for 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Devices and make sure this KB is installed : https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/3140245/update-to-enable-tls-1-1-and-tls-1-2-as-a-default-secure-protocols-in

Make sure this Reg key is set

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/schrimsher/2016/07/08/enabling-tls-1-1-and-1-2-in-outlook-on-windows-7/

2) Make sure you are not using any of these devices which do not support TLS 1.2

  • Android 4.3 and earlier versions
  • Firefox version 5.0 and earlier versions
  • Internet Explorer 8-10 on Windows 7 and earlier versions
  • Internet Explorer 10 on Win Phone 8.0
  • Safari 6.0.4/OS X10.8.4 and earlier versions

3) Check your devices e.g. MFD and Phone Systems support TLS 1.2

Windows Vista support is ending - Good Riddance

After April 11, 2017, Windows Vista customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft. Microsoft has provided support for Windows Vista for the past 10 years, but the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources towards more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences.

If your running Windows Vista , you won't be one of our customers , but please upgrade to a new version of windows or contact us to help you!

https://support.microsoft.com/af-za/help/22882/windows-vista-end-of-support

Bye Bye Exchange 2007 End of Life Today - Users of Small Business Server 2008

Exchange 2007 has officially now been dropped by Microsoft today

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2016/04/11/exchange-server-2007-t-1-year-and-counting/

A great product which was the base for Exchange 2010 and up helping with DAG setups and using powershell , it will be sad to see it go!

This was bundled in with Small Business Server 2008 so if you are using this version you will need to look at migrating your users elseswhere! 

What are your migration paths?

1) Upgrade and Migrate to the Cloud e.g. Office 365 (using their FastTrack service if you have a Minimum of 50 Users Seats) 

2) Upgrade and migrate your server to Exchange 2013 ( Can only do one jump so no Exchange 2016 ! ) 

Two top reasons to migrate to Windows 10

No New Processor Support

Intel's new 7th generation of i series chip, Kaby Lake will officially be supported only by the company’s flagship Windows 10 OS. Intel also appeared to be on board with Redmond’s decision, saying it

“will not be updating Win 7/8 drivers for 7th Gen Intel Core per Microsoft’s support policy change.”

AMD is also on the same bandwagon

"To achieve the highest confidence in the performance of our AMD Ryzen desktop processors (formerly code-named ‘Summit Ridge’), AMD validated them across two different OS generations, Windows 7 and 10,” AMD said in a statement in response to a question from PCWorld. “However, only support and drivers for Windows 10 will be provided in AMD Ryzen desktop processor production parts.”

You cannot buy Windows 7 or 8.1 anymore

As of October 31st 2016 Microsoft Ended the sale of Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 pre installed on Machines. Any new purchase of Hardware will now land your enviroment in a mixed version of Windows making it harder to : 

  • Create a standard SoE across your enviroment
  • Creat User training as this will need to be duplicated across two Operating Systems
  • Testing Company Applications 

 

There are multiple ways to roll out Windows 10 across your organisation such as Microsoft Deployment Tool , Image X and or Acronis True Image. Speak to Response IT today about solutions and time lines of a Windows 10 Deployment!