The much hyped End of Service (EOS) for SQL 2008 arrived on 7/9/2019 and it was a nothing burger… As we come upon the 1st anniversary of EOS I thought it would be fun to reflect on what happened (or didn’t, as it were). As an IT consultant I saw an onslaught of literature and Go-To-Market/communication plans supported by full marketing campaigns; information was coming from every direction. With unprecedented volumes of information for distribution through countless channels, how could EOS be so poorly received? There was something missing: customers didn’t buy into the hype, they just didn’t seem sufficiently scared. In countless discussions with practitioners and business folk alike, I’ve consistently heard the same things: it didn’t strike fear in people’s hearts and was therefore worth the gamble. That jibes with everything I’ve seen, but Is it more than that? Are people just not fearful of the consequences? What are the consequences?
Well, let’s start with what you lose:
- No Security Updates
- No Non-Security Updates
- No Free Support Options
- No new Online Content Generation
If you believe bad actors are clever and persistent, as I do then you inherently believe that losing these 4 things comes along with some risk.
Thankfully, the path forward really hasn’t changed. you can:
- Update to the latest SQL version either
- Migrate the server to a Azure virtual machine and receive 3 years of extended support for free. Note: You can obviously move to other clouds but you’ll be in the same support predicament you are now.
- Move to Azure technologies like Azure SQL DB or Managed Instance and not worry about version updates ever again.
Interestingly, none of these options is terribly difficult or expensive so what are you waiting for? Why continue rolling the dice; you may eventually craps out.