<p>Time is running out for organizations running Exchange Server 2003, but Microsoft hasn't made it easy for those wanting to move away from the decade-old mail server.</p><p>On April 8, 2014, Exchange Server 2003 will lose "extended" product support, just like Windows XP, which means there will be no more security patch support for it. After that date, Exchange 2003 will be open to attacks that won't get patched by Microsoft, leading to potential security issues for organizations.</p><p>Getting off Microsoft's aging mail server in a couple of months could pose difficulties for organizations, given all of the steps involved in carrying out a migration. Exchange 2003 use represented 16 percent of all Exchange Server deployments worldwide, accounting for 66 million mailboxes, according to a March 2013 report (PDF) by The Radicati Group. The research firm estimated in that report that 6.3 million small-to-medium businesses in North America were still using Exchange 2003.</p><p>Other time bombs on the horizon for some organizations are Outlook 2003, Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2, Office 2003 and Windows XP. They all lose extended product support on April 8, according to Microsoft's product lifecycle descriptions.</p><p><a href="http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/02/03/transitioning-from-exchange-2003.aspx">Keep reading...</a></p>