A few users are using an old Windows 2003 R2 Server for file sharing and a back end SQL server 2000 database. Clients are running a rather old Access 2003 procedure connected to the SQL server. The computer is not exposed to the Internet, runs the server firewall.
We have been advised many times to switch to newer server however this would require multiple steps: 1) change server hardware 2) upgrade server software 3) migrate SQL server to newer versions (multiple steps from 2000, to 2005, to Azureus, with manual intervention) 4) completely rewrite Access 2003 environment (tenth, forms, tables, reports)
A huge investment in terms of time, for a small procedure that runs smoothly and requires very little (if none) updates over time.
2003 R2 is reaching EOL, however, apart from security issues (hacking) I would rather keep things running as they are!
Critical factors: - hardware: failure -> Missing spare parts - software: EOL -> Missing updates -> Security risks
Possible solutions - On the hardware side, once the server should collapse, we could easily move the (daily) server image (VHD) to a virtualbox hosted on a newer computer.
- On the software side, how to protect the computer to potential attacks?