Exchange 2010 end of life support

Exchange Server 2010 end of life support is on October 13, 2020. Many organizations are working with Exchange 2010 and are not yet upgraded to Exchange 2016/2019 or Exchange Online with Office 365/Microsoft 365. If you are not yet migrated, now is the time to start planning and migrating before Exchange 2010 support ends.

What does Exchange 2010 end of life mean?

Most Microsoft products have a support lifecycle during which they get new features, bug fixes, security fixes, and so on. This lifecycle typically lasts for 10 years from the product’s initial release. The end of this lifecycle is known as the product’s end of support.

Exchange 2010 reached the end of support on October 13, 2020, and Microsoft will no longer provide:

• Technical support for problems that may occur
• Bug fixes for issues that may impact the stability and usability of the server
• Security fixes for vulnerabilities that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches
• Time zone updates

Exchange 2010 end of life options

There are a couple of options for migrating to a supported Exchange version:

Path 1: Stay on-premises

1. Install Exchange 2016
2. Migrate Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016
3. Decommission Exchange 2010
4. Install Exchange 2019
5. Migrate Exchange 2016 to Exchange 2019
6. Decommission Exchange 2016

Path 2: Migrate to the cloud (hybrid)

1. Go through the same steps as shown in path 1
2. Configure an Exchange Hybrid deployment and migrate mailboxes to Exchange Online
3. Keep Exchange 2019 or decommission Exchange 2019 (depending on your organization)

Note: You will keep Active Directory on-premises (Authority), and Azure AD Connect will sync all the changes to the cloud (Azure AD).

Path 3: Move to the cloud

1. Configure an Exchange Hybrid deployment and migrate mailboxes to Exchange Online
2. Decommission Exchange 2010
3. Remove Active Directory on-premises

Note: You will not have an Active Directory on-premises and Azure AD Connect. The whole organization is in Azure AD (cloud).

Here are the three paths you can take to avoid the end of support for Exchange Server 2010:

You can install Exchange Server 2016 in coexistence with Exchange Server 2010. There is no need to install Exchange Server 2013 if you want to go straight from Exchange Server 2010 to Exchange Server 2016. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to upgrade from Exchange 2010 to 2019.

Keep reading: Install Exchange Server »

Conclusion

Upgrade your Exchange Server 2010 as quickly as possible. In one of the upcoming courses, we will explain how to migrate from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016. Stay tuned!

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