The world-including the business community-has changed considerably since 2002/03. When you bought your Server/Office/Windows licenses, Twitter did not exist, Facebook had fewer than a million members and Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister.

With End of Support for old licenses approaching, deciding to upgrade to Office 2010, Exchange 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2 makes sense. It will give you added flexibility to help empower employees to be more productive, while increasing operational efficiency through improved PC security and management. It will also enable your organization to take advantage of the latest technology trends, such as virtualization and the cloud.

Get current with Office 2010, Exchange 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This option has advantages well beyond keeping you supported. It offers more flexibility to empower your employees to be more productive, while increasing operational efficiency through improved PC security and management. It also enables your organization to take advantage of the latest technology trends, such as virtualization and the cloud.

End of support for Office 2003, Windows XP and Exchange 2003 means that after April 8, 2014, there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes or free paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.

Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 SP2 Extended Support will end July 14, 2015. Your particular Small Business Server end of life is based upon its components. Visit this blog by a MVP to learn more.

Continuing to run Windows XP SP4 and Office 2003 in your environment after their end of support may expose your company to potential risks such as:

Security & Compliance Risks: Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security threats. This may result in an officially recognized control failure by an internal or external audit body, leading to suspension of certifications, and/or public notification of the organization's inability to maintain its systems and customer information.

Lack of Independent Software Vendor (ISV) & Hardware Manufacturers Support: A recent industry report from Gartner Research suggests "many independent software vendors (ISVs) are unlikely to support new versions of applications on Windows XP in 2011; in 2012, it will become common." And it may stifle access to hardware innovation; Gartner Research further notes that in 2012, most PC hardware manufacturers will stop supporting Windows XP on the majority of their new PC models.

Microsoft communication and collaboration solutions can help you and your employees be effective from anywhere!

Microsoft Office 2010, Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Lync 2010 offer collaboration and unified communications capabilities with the best end-to-end integration, allowing your organization to flexibly grow.

Enhance Productivity and Mobility: Improve productivity by connecting the right resources (people) with the right information (data and content). Enable employees to instant message, talk via voice and video, and online conference with their colleagues and external audiences! Solve business challenges and get more done while you're away from the office or on the road. Give employees access to e-mail, contacts, calendar and business information virtually anytime from a PC, remotely via the Web and from their mobile phones.

Improve Teamwork and Collaboration: Share ideas and information, and collaborate on group projects more effectively. Help everyone in the organization find, store and collaborate on information more efficiently by providing a consistent experience when sharing, accessing, and retaining documents and records. Do it all securely using Lync, an online conferencing subscription service that connects audiences for meetings, training and events.

Simplify IT Security and Reliability: Get professional management, scheduled data backups, best-in-class data centers, financially backed service level agreements, and 24/7 IT support when you subscribe to a Microsoft or partner-hosted service.