{"id":19950,"date":"2023-10-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-03-07T15:17:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T23:17:04","slug":"secure-windows-server-2012-r2-workloads-with-options-from-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/blog\/2023\/10\/10\/secure-windows-server-2012-r2-workloads-with-options-from-azure\/","title":{"rendered":"Secure Windows Server 2012\/R2 workloads with options from Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are grateful for the trust our customers have placed in Windows Server 2012\/R2 as a part of their organizations for the past decade. With this release of Windows Server having launched 10 years ago, it reaches end of support on October 10th, 2023, per our 10-year lifecycle policy<\/a>. After this date, no more security patches will be released for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. To stay protected and compliant, we wanted to outline three options for customers from Azure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernize with PaaS or upgrade to a newer version in Azure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Modernization provides organizations with a more future-proof solution by using a cloud-first approach or updating to a newer version. One modernization option is moving to platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions such as Azure SQL Managed Instance<\/a> or Azure App Service<\/a>. By modernizing workloads to a PaaS solution, customers can fully offload management and patching tasks in the cloud. This helps teams stay up-to-date, avoid future end-of-support dates, and focus on delivering innovative apps and experiences for their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatively, customers can migrate and<\/em> upgrade their Windows Server 2012\/R2 with Azure Migrate<\/a>, our free tool for discovery, assessment, and migration of workloads to Azure. With this feature, organizations can now elect to move their legacy applications and databases to a fully supported, compatible, and compliant operating system. This includes our latest release in Windows Server 2022<\/a>, which provides organizations with advanced multi-layer security, hybrid capabilities with Azure, and a flexible platform to modernize applications. Learn more about this feature<\/a> of Azure Migrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Migrate to Azure for free Extended Security Updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If organizations are not able to modernize Windows Server 2012\/R2 in time, they can use Extended Security Updates (ESUs)<\/a>, which provide security patches for up to three years past the end of support date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When organizations migrate end-of-support workloads to Azure, they get free Extended Security Updates. This includes options such as\u202fAzure Virtual Machines<\/a>,\u202fAzure Dedicated Host<\/a>,\u202fAzure VMware Solution<\/a>, and\u202fAzure Stack HCI<\/a>. Combining this with\u202fAzure Hybrid Benefit<\/a>\u202fand consumption models such as\u202freserved instances<\/a>\u202for\u202fsavings plan for compute<\/a>\u202fallows even more savings in Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations can get in-depth resources to help them start their cloud journey on Azure with Azure Migrate and Modernize & Azure Innovate<\/a>\u2014our new offerings that provide end-to-end support from migration and modernization to infusing the latest innovation in analytics and AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay protected in hybrid and multicloud environments with ESUs enabled by Azure Arc<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For organizations who aren\u2019t able to modernize or migrate prior to the Windows Server 2012\/R2 end of support date this October, they can protect their hybrid and multicloud workloads with ESUs enabled by Azure Arc<\/a>. Here are the key benefits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n