This week's warning comes after Microsoft reminded IT admins in January that Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 will no longer receive technical support starting in October. The Exchange Server Engineering Team also shared guidance for admins who need to decommission outdated servers until then, cautioning that Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 servers will be exposed to attacks since they'll no longer receive security patches and bug fixes. Admins who want to keep their Exchange servers can perform in-place upgrades from Exchange Server 2019 to Exchange Server SE or a legacy upgrade from Exchange 2016. You do have the option of a legacy upgrade from Exchange 2016 to Exchange Server SE RTM, skipping Exchange 2019 completely," Microsoft added this week. Microsoft advises Exchange admins to prepare to upgrade to Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) when it rolls out later this year or migrate to Exchange Online (available as a stand-alone service or as an Office 365 subscription) if they want to retire their own Exchange Server deployment. In May 2024, Microsoft also said it would not extend the end-of-life date, offer extended support, or offer Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Exchange 2016 or Exchange 2019. "If you are running Exchange 2016, we recommend that you perform a legacy (a.k.a. side-by-side) upgrade to Exchange 2019 now and then perform an in-place upgrade to Exchange Server SE once it's released. Microsoft warned that Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will reach the end of support six months from now, on October 14. Exchange 2019 reached the end of mainstream support on January 9, 2024, while Exchange 2016 reached its mainstream support end date in October 2020. "Customer installations of Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will of course continue to run after October 14, 2025," Microsoft said on Monday. Microsoft provides detailed guidance for global admins on Microsoft 365 migration and the Exchange Online migration path.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 15:10:14 +0000