Microsoft announced today that it will end support for SQL Server 2005 on 12 April 2016.
Users of the database management system will no longer receive hotfixes or security updates, although SQL Server 2005 instances will continue to run.
The American IT giant made the announcement today in a blog post, in which it advised customers still running the old software to create migration plans. The move comes ten years after the product was first released.
It was stressed that Microsoft had invested considerably in SQL Server 2014, claiming that the new platform is 13 times faster than SQL Server 2005.
Other features highlighted included AlwaysOn availability groups and new tools in SQL Server Management Studio providing an easy on-ramp to cloud to help get more from investing in a data platform.
The blog also contained advice for how organisations might move to the SQL Server 2014, suggesting that they follow a three-part approach titled "Discover, Target, Upgrade", and the team will post blogs providing advice for the upgrade.
"Over the last decade, Microsoft has continued to invest and SQL Server has evolved to be an enterprise-class solution to support your growing business needs," commented T. K. Rengarajan, Corporate Vice President, Data Platform. "If you haven’t yet moved on to take advantage of these capabilities, now is the time to start planning.
Content from our partners
"Upgrading is not just a maintenance task, but an opportunity to provide new value to your business," Rengarajan added.
