Police, firefighters, ambulances, hospitals: 20 per cent still rely on Win Server 2003

One in every five public-sector health and emergency services organisations in the UK will still be running Windows Server 2003 after Microsoft ends extended support today. A Reg investigation of 33 hospitals, ambulance trusts, police and fire and rescue services found that many are still running Windows Server 2003 on a lot …

[DanDanDan]

Great original reporting El Reg... unfortunately, I'm not surprised!

[tony2heads]

I see its still her with the upside-down badge

Don't you have another image for Mr (or Ms) plod?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I see its still her with the upside-down badge

Why would you want another photo? Have a down-vote for the lack of appreciation. Tsk. ;)

[Barry Tabrah]

The more interesting institutions

I'd be a lot more interested in which financial institutions are holding our information on WS2003. If any organisation is going to be targeted it's going to be them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Better than I thought

That's better than I thought if I am honest, looking round here (Anon for that reason) we have a higher percentage than that.

[Anonymous Coward]

"A huge chunk, 28 per cent of those migrating, gave dates for completion sometime during the fourth quarter of this year."

More like 28% fobbing you off

[Velv]

I don't understand El Reg's obsession with the end of support for Server 2003. The world is not going to suddenly collapse.

We balance risks against rewards or costs on a daily basis. Getting out of bed carries risk. Stand on that Lego brick and it'll hurt, so you look where you're going.

There is nothing wrong with running an OS without vendor support as long as you understand (and perhaps mitigate) the risk of failure. I wouldn't front Server 2003 onto the Internet. But my SQLServer that's firewalled even from the internal users (1433 only) is relatively well protected against attack.

I expect down votes, but then I'm not being paid by Microsoft to spin the sale of upgrades.

[Anonymous Coward]

Proof, as if we needed any more, that the politicians, directors and managers who run things actually don't give a shit about anyone but themselves. Anything short of depriving them of their positions and pensions for epic fails like this isn't going to change that.

[Dan 10]

Support

I know the Custom Support Agreement provides hotixes and updates (although only critical one, and that's as judged by MS), but does the CSA provide continued access to tech support - given that you need a premier support agreement in order to purchase a CSA? Or has 2003 tech support been killed as part of this?

[Anonymous Coward]

On the brightside...

when plod phones in sick, the Atos servicedesk will be up to speed on giving them short shrift and telling them to get into work.