Microsoft Cuts Support for SQL Server 2008 RTM

SQL Server 2008 RTM is joining Windows Vista RTM and additional Microsoft products that are no longer supported by the company. Support for SQL Server 2008 RTM is scheduled to end today, April 13, 2010, as per the Service Pack support policy of the software giant. Customers still running the original release of SQL Server 2008 will need to upgrade as soon as possible. The simplest solution is for SQL Server 2008 RTM customers to deploy the first service pack for the data platform and continue running the product, enjoying full support from Microsoft.

As of April 13, Microsoft will no longer provide assisted support for SQL Server 2008 RTM. At the same time, the data platform customers will be left to fend for themselves in the face of attacks targeting vulnerabilities affecting the product, unless they upgrade to SP1.

No security updates will be provided for SQL Server 2008 RTM as of the end of the support date. However, customers will still be able to leverage Self-Help online support resources, which will be kept alive for another year. Still, in this context, users are limited to just public knowledge base articles, FAQs, and the troubleshooting tools offered through the Microsoft Download Center.

Obviously, the wise decision is to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 SP1. At the same time, there’s also the option to wait for the release of Microsoft’s next-generation data platform. According to the software giant, SQL Server 2008 R2 is planned for general availability by May 2010.

However, customers must consider the risks to their infrastructure carefully, and evaluate whether they can mitigate potential attacks until they wrap up the deployment of SQL Server 2008’s successor. Microsoft has already set the start date of the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Tour on April 21st, at the PASS European Conference 2010.

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available for download here.