Databarracks launches Windows Server 2003 into space (well, the stratosphere)
Disaster recovery provider Databarracks has today released their unique tribute to Windows Server 2003, which reaches end of life on July 14th. The Databarracks team, alongside The University of Surrey's Electronics and Amateur Radio Society (EARS), launched a Win2k3 disk into space.
Based on mass and the weather conditions on the day, the team predicts the balloon carrying the disk reached an altitude of 100,000 feet (30km) - most commercial aircraft fly at an altitude of 30,000 to 40,000 feet – before bursting and travelling back down to Earth. The curvature of the Earth can be seen quite clearly in the film as the balloon approaches its maximum height.
Peter Groucutt, Managing Director at Databarracks, commented on the gesture:
"Windows Server 2003 has been such a reliable workhorse for organisations for the last decade. The unparalleled levels of stability it has offered have earned it a special place in the hearts of IT managers worldwide – ours included. There's almost a feeling of nostalgia when we think about Server 2003 reaching end of life. For us as a company especially – we were founded in 2003 and so Win2k3 has been integral to us from the start. We wanted to give it a fitting send off."
Despite support reaching end of life, research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) suggests that at the end of 2014 61 per cent of businesses were still reliant on Windows Server 2003. A further study by Bit9 predicts 2.7 million Win2k3 servers will remain deployed post end-of-life. Oscar Arean, Technical Operations Manager for Databarracks says this poses a big risk:
"Continuing to run an unsupported operating system after end-of-life will leave you open to vulnerabilities. In addition, applications will no longer be supported by vendors on server 2003. While they may work fine for a while, if you do have an issue, the vendor won't be able to help. While there are security products available to allow you to keep Windows Server 2003, that option will prove expensive. Additionally, expect IT support companies to increase the cost of support of 2003 boxes - Microsoft are rumoured to be charging around $600 USD per incident."
You can watch the full video here.
A hi-res image is available here. Photo credit must be attributed to Databarracks.
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About Databarracks
Databarracks provides ultra-secure, award winning Disaster Recovery, Backup and Infrastructure services from UK-based, ex-military data centres.
Databarracks is certified by the Cloud Industry Forum, ISO 27001 certified for Information Security and has been selected as a provider to the G-Cloud framework. Find out more at www.databarracks.com
Contact:
Nick Bird/Tom Harvey
Spreckley Partners Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 207 388 9988
Email: databarrackspr@spreckley.co.uk