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Microsoft Excel Shortcut Keys
By: Chaz Popovich,
OSI Technologies, Inc.

Microsoft Abandons

NT4 Server - What To Do?

By: Scott Schafer, OSI Technologies, Inc.

Hauppauge, NY -- Here is the good news: Microsoft will continue to support your NT4 server until December 31st of this year. Here are some conditions: You have to be a large business and be able to purchase a fairly expensive support contract and agree to develop an NT4 to Windows 2003 migration plan to qualify. Here is the bad news: The NT4 workstation is no longer supported and if you are a smaller business, you need to make a change soon.

As expected, this hasn’t been well received by Microsoft customers. To compensate, Microsoft has agreed to support its future products for 10 years from release date.

So what is the impact on the small to medium business running on NT4 today? It depends on your situation. Here are cases where the decision to upgrade from NT4 Server to Windows 2003 Server is easy:

1. Your required software is not supported on NT4. These may include the Microsoft ISA firewall and its anti spam features, many third party applications such as backup, accounting and video security.
2. The age of your NT4 server creates issues such as your hardware is too slow or limited to meet your requirements and the right new server hardware is available with Windows 2003 at an aggressive price.
3. For some critical applications or in cases of large numbers of installations, it is unacceptable to run on an operating system for which no new security patches, no new bug fixes and no manufacturer technical support will be available.

For all other cases, here are reasons that warrant the serious consideration of an upgrade:

1. Windows 2003 offers longer server up time between reboots than NT4
2. Windows 2003 offers more features such as remote access that lower support costs (With windows 2003, many day to day problems can now be fixed remotely by the support team)
3. Windows 2003 offers improved security flexibility
4. In some instances two NT4 servers can be combined into a single Windows 2003 server.

In any case you will want to consider and compare the cost of current operations, the cost of conversion and the anticipated costs of future operations to have a complete financial picture. These decisions are not easy. If we can help or if you would like more information, contact Scott Schafer at sschafer@ositechnologies.com or 1.800. 757. 7471 x205

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