Microsoft extends support 6 years for Windows Server Premium Assurance, SQL Server Premium Assurance

Microsoft has just announced two new offerings to help companies run applications even longer without disruption: Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance.

These offerings add six more years of product support for Windows Server and SQL Server, for a minimum of 16 years of total support (five years each of Mainstream and Extended Support, plus the new Premium Assurance period), according to a blog post by Mark Jewett, senior director of Cloud Platform Marketing, and Tiffany Wissner, senior director of Data Platform Marketing.

The added support period gives customers security updates and bulletins rated "Critical" and "Important" for both products to help companies meet compliance requirements and ensure that the systems they're not yet ready to update are secure, Jewett and Wissner stated.

Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance, which can be purchased separately or together, will both be offered beginning in early 2017.

The price for Premium Assurance will start at 5 percent of the current product license cost, increasing over time up to 12 percent. Companies that buy before the end of June 2017 will save nearly 60 percent on the cost of Premium Assurance, according to the blog post.

The first versions covered by Premium Assurance will be SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (Extended Support ends in July 2019) and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (Extended Support ends in January 2020). Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance are purchased as add-ons to active Software Assurance for each product, the authors stated.

To help modernize applications, Software Assurance gives companies the latest Windows Server and SQL Server innovation at no additional cost.

The next version of Windows Server (currently in development) will ...