Microsoft has made Subscription Editions (SE) of Exchange Server and Skype for Business Server generally available, marking an end to year-numbered versions.
Redmond has cut it fine for the updates. The previous versions, Exchange Server 2019 and Skype for Business Server 2019, are due to drop out of extended support on October 14, as are Exchange Server 2016 and Skype for Business Server 2016.
Microsoft has sought to make the transition straightforward for administrators and said that only changes between the last cumulative update for Exchange Server 2019 (CU15) include an update to the license agreement, a name change, a build and version number update, and the rolling up of updates released since CU15. The same applies to Skype for Business Server SE (other than the CU15 part, of course).
The upgrade is deemed – at least by Microsoft – to be low risk, though we can’t imagine any administrators trusting an install without thoroughly testing it in their environments first. A busy few months might therefore lie ahead.
Running an organization on an unsupported platform is a huge no-no, not least from a regulatory standpoint, but for organizations that can’t or won’t make the move to Microsoft’s cloud, where Exchange Online and Teams can be found, the company’s on-premises products have fulfilled a critical need.
Then there are those organizations that might hold their nose at the thought of all their communications going through a cloud owned by a US-based company, regardless of certain tech giants insisting that their approaches to sovereign computing and storage mean there is no chance of US government agencies unexpectedly demanding access.
So the on-premises versions of Exchange and Skype for Business continue. Microsoft said the release “demonstrates our commitment to ongoing support for scenarios where on-premises solutions remain critical.”
That said, things are changing, most notably from a licensing perspective. Where once a customer would have bought a perpetual license for their server, Microsoft now expects a regular payment to keep using its software. Stop paying, and you’re back to the now-unsupported perpetual version you’d purchased previously.
And prices are going up. According to Microsoft: “To support ongoing maintenance and updates for Microsoft’s on-premises server products, prices for all standalone on-premises server products (SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, and Skype for Business Server) will increase by 10 percent.”
Some types of licenses will jump in cost by up to 20 percent.
The price increases do not apply to Microsoft’s cloud products: SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, or Microsoft Teams.
At the time of the price rise announcements, Directions on Microsoft analyst Rob Helm commented: “The licenses price hikes, the cutoff of old versions, the weak link with new Outlook, they all point to a single message: If you care about Exchange email, get off Exchange Server.” ®
