Migrating Windows NT 4:
Many large organizations still have mission critical applications on machines running Windows NT 4. The availability and reliability of these applications is a growing concern. Several factors contribute to this concern, including frequent patching cycles with reduced support from Microsoft, difficulty managing remote servers and hardware limitations of existing NT 4 deployments. This white paper examines the problems enterprises currently face with their NT 4 server deployments, outlines the requirements that any effective solution must satisfy, and explains how Solidcore can help enterprises significantly lower the cost of supporting legacy NT 4 deployments. An appendix at the end of the paper provides a ROI analysis to quantify Solidcore's value.
Problems with NT 4 deployments Microsoft has been urging customers to migrate to their new server platform, Windows Server 2003. As an added push, Microsoft recently confirmed that NT 4 Server support would end on December 31st 2004. There are several good reasons for adopting the new platform - better performance, improved security, and more management features. However, the NT 4 installed base is still very large; IDC estimates that that about 17% of the installed base of Windows servers still run on NT. As a result of the limited nature of support provided and the large deployed base of NT 4 servers, enterprises with existing NT 4 deployments face significant risk to their operations. Gartner, in a recent note to its customers, recommended: "Until migration from NT 4.0 is complete, implement proactive security measures."
Customer concerns generally fall into five major categories: NT 4 servers running mission-critical applications Many NT 4 servers are still in production environments because they run mission-critical applications and the process of migrating to a new platform poses unacceptably high levels of risk to the business. In many cases these applications have been running for a number of years and many of them have a degree of fragility that makes upgrading them difficult to accomplish in a timely and cost-effective manner. As a result, the challenge that enterprises face, for NT servers running critical applications, is providing the same level of availability and recovery time that is available on other deployed production systems.
Patch unavailability for NT 4 servers
Microsoft ended support for NT 4 server at the end of 2004 as scheduled. Continuing free support is severely restricted. In response to customer demand, Microsoft instituted a custom support program. However, it suffers from several drawbacks, including its cost ($200,000 a year), applicability (a complex approval process is required before customers are qualified to join the custom support program) and the length of time taken for updates to be made available to NT4 customers. As a result of these restrictions, few customers have signed up for this support option; Microsoft estimates that about 100 customers had signed up by December 2004 ? mostly government agencies and a few of Microsoft's largest business customers. Hardware limitations on NT 4 servers Most NT 4 servers run on older systems, with lower processing capacity and less memory than is common on today's standard production configurations. As a result, many suggested risk mitigation strategies such as installing real-time anti-virus scanning, or other host intrusion prevention systems are not practical solutions on real deployments.
Managing remote NT 4 servers
Managing NT 4 servers in remote locations is complex, cumbersome and often impossible. Microsoft acknowledges as much - one of the main reasons it cites as a reason to migrate to Windows Server 2003 is easier remote administration. Customers in the retail industry, for example, cite the difficulty of remotely managing NT 4 servers in their stores as a major area of operational overhead and expense. NT 4 servers as a conduit to the corporate network Many of the concerns above ? irregular patch availability, difficulty controlling remote servers ? give rise to another concern: preventing NT 4 servers from being used as a conduit to compromise the rest of the corporate network. The hacker community is aware of the issues enterprises face in managing NT 4 servers, and can target their attacks to gain access through an NT 4 server and then propagate throughout the enterprise.
