Microsoft starts selling extended support for Windows Server 2008

Microsoft has started selling extended support for Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, in both their original and R2 versions.

Both products reach the end of their supported lives on 14 February 2020. After that date Microsoft won’t update either product or issue any new security patches.

Unless you pay.

And pay quite a lot, as Microsoft's End of Service FAQ [PDF] explains:

Extended Security Updates pricing will be 75 percent (annually) of the Enterprise Agreement or Server & Cloud Enrollment license prices of the latest version of SQL Server or Windows Server;
Coverage will be available in three consecutive 12-month increments following End of Support, but must pay up front for the first year;
If you sign up for the service in the middle of a year, you have to pay for the full year;
If you decide not to sign up for a year, then sign up the next year, you’ll have to pay for both years.

As is so often the case these days, Microsoft has made it plain the company wants you in Azure, because if you send your Windows Server 2008 and SQL server 2008 workloads into the Microsoft cloud you’ll get ongoing security updates for free.

The FAQ also explains arrangements for accessing the updates in hosted scenarios, as follows:

	On-premises	Azure	Hosted Windows Server	Hosted SQL Server
Extended Security Updates Pricing	75% of full license price annually	Free. Included in standard VM rate	Same as on-premises Minimum 16 cores/instance	Same as on-premises 4 core minimum purchase requirement
Software Assurance (SA) or subscription requirement	Required for covered licenses	Not required, although SA provides Azure Hybrid Benefit	Not required when licenses purchased from hoster. License Mobility not available	Not required when licenses purchased from hoster. Required for License Mobility