Time to Walk Away from Some Microsoft Products

• Microsoft is dropping development, cutting support, and raising prices for many on-premises products.
• These dead-end products already cost more for customers to maintain and secure.
• Customers should consider third-party alternatives for dead-end products, especially when there is no direct Microsoft replacement.

Microsoft rarely retires on-premises products these days. The company’s preferred route is to continue to offer licenses and new versions for products that are receiving limited development resources—often while those products increase in price or offer reduced licensing rights and the new versions offer little more than compatibility fixes. These types of licensing changes are often made by Microsoft to help encourage customers to shift to Microsoft 365, Office 365, or Azure-hosted services instead. Given this reality, customers should limit their licensing spend on certain products and wind down use of others to minimize investing in dead or dying products. In some cases, companies may want to consider looking at third-party alternatives, as Microsoft’s lack of investment may indicate the limited opportunity Microsoft sees in the future of the product.