As of 14th July 2015, Microsoft will no longer offer support for Windows 2003 users with upgrades and computer defence.

It appears that many IT departments at certain companies are entirely unprepared for the July deadline. Insight UK – the worldwide technology provider of hardware, software and service solutions – has identified five key areas of trouble that these struggling IT operations are likely to face. These are:

- Short-term administration

- Comprised coalitions

- Regime Change and artificial barriers

- Weak new administrations

- Ungovernable new environments

Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise Marketing, Microsoft, warned at the beginning of this year, ‘If you are still running Windows Server 2003, I want to remind you that now is the time to migrate… even a single unpatched server can be a point of vulnerability for your entire infrastructure.’

Any Windows 2003 related IT disasters post-July could well lead to a spike in popularity for IT outsourcing by the end of this summer.

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