So how long will most vendors keep supporting the OS you’re relying on for your mission-critical applications? We took a look at when you can expect to have to overhaul your OS deployments for a variety of different systems. Datamation has the story.
Desktop and server operating system updates are almost always a pain in the neck for IT admins — to say nothing of wholesale OS upgrades. While recent trends like virtualization and cloud-based infrastructure can help alleviate the difficulty, for most small businesses, large enterprises and everyone in between, OS updates and upgrades are a manual, time-consuming task.
Of course, that’s also assuming you’ve still got the support of the OS’s vendor to help you through it.
Working without a supported OS can be a risky affair indeed. One has only to look at the regular security updates and bug fixes pumped out by vendors like Microsoft, Apple and the Linux distros to get a sense of the fact that without those updates for your OS, you may be endangering your business, its apps and its data.
Key to any operating system buying decision is its lifespan for support and maintenance updates. As it turns out, most of the major operating system vendors offer support lengths that, on the surface, don’t differ radically from each other — though there are exceptions to the rule that IT managers need to keep in mind if they’re going to get the most support for their dollar.
An investigation conducted by InternetNews.com has determined that many Unix, Windows and Linux operating system vendors now have an average of 10 years of support length, though that hasn’t always been the case for at least one major player.
