Forum Discussion
When is the Earliest Possible End of Service Date for Project Server Subscription Edition?
Hi Brian, I agree it would be good to have this answer, to instill some confidence in clients moving to SE that this type of change won't happen again soon, as many are investing real $ in this migration.
I would say the language should change from 'end of service' to 'end of mainstream or extended support.' Technically as an on-premise product a client has perpetual use licensing rights to Project Server. We still know folks running 2007 and 2013! The good news here is that Microsoft can't 'turn it off' as it'll be in client data centers, for them to control. They CAN stop issuing patches and updates... Subscription Edition appears to be more of a product naming and licensing mechanism than an actual thing the software vendor (in this case Microsoft) controls, unlike a SaaS service like POl that they DO control.
Great points Rob, and I think the article I mentioned was forced on Microsoft by some large customers who had a huge investment in SharePoint and/or Exchange, and couldn't run their businesses on a "12 months' notice" solution. I think the biggest risk of just using it "out of support" is if some change to the Project client's file handling broke connectivity to the server - and Microsoft just held their hands up saying "out of support". Of course, you could just avoid patching the client, but that sort of break has in the past come from security fixes.
