SmartSpend Bulletin™
Microsoft End of Support Update 2025
Which Products are Up Next and How to Prepare
In 2025, approximately 120 Microsoft offerings will reach end of support or servicing, transition to Extended Support, or be retired – including certain Azure functionalities. For enterprise customers, this means critical decisions must be made: upgrade to supported versions or continue using unsupported products at their own risk. In this bulletin, we outline the products slated for sunset in 2025 and key considerations for Microsoft customers as they prepare for these changes.
The scope of these retirements is significant, with around 50% of the affected offerings tied to Azure. Once these products reach end of support, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support, or online technical content updates – potentially leaving organizations exposed to operational and security risks.
Below is the current list of Microsoft offerings scheduled for retirement or end of servicing/support in 2025:
| Product Retirements Governed by Microsoft’s Modern Policy | Retirement Date |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Genomics | January 6, 2025 |
| Visual Studio App Center | March 31, 2025 |
| SAP HANA Large Instances (HLIs) | June 30, 2025 |
| Azure Database for MariaDB | September 19, 2025 |
| Azure Basic Load Balancer | September 30, 2025 |
| Azure HPC Cache | September 30, 2025 |
| Azure Remote Rendering | September 30, 2025 |
| Azure Service Map | September 30, 2025 |
| Azure SQL Edge | September 30, 2025 |
| Azure Unmanaged Disks | September 30, 2025 |
| Azure vFXT | September 30, 2025 |
| Windows 10 Enterprise and Education | October 14, 2025 |
| Windows 10 Home and Pro | October 14, 2025 |
| Windows 10 IoT Enterprise | October 14, 2025 |
| Additional Azure Changes: More information here | Retirement Date |
|---|---|
| HTTP Application Routing add-on for AKS | March 3, 2025 |
| Azure pod identity v1 (public preview) | March 14, 2025 |
| Explainability and Fairness Dashboard | March 14, 2025 |
| “Global ingestion endpoints” (resulting in Instrumentation Key deprecation) | March 15, 2025 |
| Every-write AOF on Redis Enterprise | March 15, 2025 |
| Git Repository - API Management 2 | March 15, 2025 |
| Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Single Server | March 28, 2025 |
| Azure HDInsight 4.0 | March 30, 2025 |
| Azure HDInsight 5.0 | March 30, 2025 |
| Application Insights ‘instrumentation key’ based global ingestion | March 31, 2025 |
| Azure Functions Service Bus Extension v4 | March 31, 2025 |
| Azure Maps Creator Feature State APIs | March 31, 2025 |
| Azure Maps Native SDK | March 31, 2025 |
| Azure portal templates | March 31, 2025 |
| Chef Run_lists and Cookbooks in Azure CycleCloud Cluster-Init Projects | March 31, 2025 |
| Container Monitoring solution | March 31, 2025 |
| Cost Management - Connector for AWS | March 31, 2025 |
| Direct Management API | March 31, 2025 |
| Microsoft Azure Storage Track 1 SDK for C++ | March 31, 2025 |
| QnAMaker Service V1 | March 31, 2025 |
| Retirement of Platform Enabled DR for App Service Web Apps | March 31, 2025 |
| SQL's connector v1 operations | March 31, 2025 |
| Standard_NC24rs_v3 VM size | March 31, 2025 |
| Visual Studio App Center | March 31, 2025 |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS support | April 23, 2025 |
| Node 18 LTS on App Service | April 30, 2025 |
| Cluster Configuration Flux v1 | May 24, 2025 |
| SAP HLI SKU Retirement | June 30, 2025 |
| Azure Database for MariaDB | September 19, 2025 |
| End of Servicing: Governed by Microsoft’s Modern Policy | End of Servicing Date |
|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises (Modern Policy), 2023 release wave 2, version 23.x | April 2, 2025 |
| Microsoft Configuration Manager, Version 2309 | April 9, 2025 |
| Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises (Modern Policy), 2024 release wave 1, version 24.x | October 7, 2025 |
| Windows 11 Enterprise and Education, Version 22H2 | October 14, 2025 |
| Windows 11 IoT Enterprise, Version 22H2 | October 14, 2025 |
| Microsoft Configuration Manager, Version 2403 | October 22, 2025 |
| Windows Server Annual Channel, Version 23H2 | October 24, 2025 |
| Windows 11 Home and Pro, Version 23H2 | November 11, 2025 |
| Products Reaching End of Support: Governed by Microsoft’s Fixed Policy | End of Support Date |
|---|---|
| Dynamics C5 2015 | January 14, 2025 |
| Dynamics CRM 2015 | January 14, 2025 |
| Dynamics NAV 2015 | January 14, 2025 |
| Dynamics SL 2015 | January 14, 2025 |
| Visual Studio 2022 , Version 17.6 (LTSC channel) | January 14, 2025 |
| Dynamics GP 2015 | April 8, 2025 |
| Dynamics GP 2015 R2 | April 8, 2025 |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Extended Security Update Year 3 | July 8, 2025 |
| SQL Server 2014, Extended Security Updates Year 1 | July 8, 2025 |
| Visual Studio 2022 , Version 17.8 (LTSC channel) | July 8, 2025 |
| Access 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Access 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises (Fixed Policy) | October 14, 2025 |
| Excel 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Excel 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| Exchange Server 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Exchange Server 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| Microsoft Office 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Microsoft Office 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| Microsoft Report Viewer 2015 Runtime | October 14, 2025 |
| OneNote 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Outlook 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Outlook 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| PowerPoint 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| PowerPoint 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| Project 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Project 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
| Publisher 2016 | October 14, 2025 |
| Publisher 2019 | October 14, 2025 |
Microsoft is also moving several products from Mainstream to Extended Support in 2025. Per Microsoft, Extended Support includes security updates at no cost, and paid non-security updates and support. Once a product is in Extended Support phase, Microsoft does not accept requests for design changes or new features.
| Products Moving to Extended Support | End of Mainstream Support |
|---|---|
| SQL Server 2019 | February 28, 2025 |
| Products Moving to Extended Support | End of Mainstream Support |
|---|---|
| Azure DevOps Server 2020 | October 14, 2025 |
| Microsoft Robotics | October 14, 2025 |
Preparing for End of Support
Microsoft customers have limited options when a product reaches end of support – upgrade to the latest cloud or on-premise version of that product, remain on the existing version and absorb the business risk, or (if eligible) enroll in Microsoft’s Extended Security Update Program.
As customers navigate this decision, they should ask the following questions:
- What is the cost to upgrade? Does an upgrade align with the organization’s internal IT roadmap? Remember, Microsoft is highly motivated to move customers to the newest versions of their offerings. In many cases, the deal window is open for customers that decide to make the move. But customer readiness is key and there are technical environment factors that add cost, complexity, and risk to the equation.
- Can the organization tolerate the risk of using unsupported Microsoft technology? If an application or business process stops working (because, for example, changes to the underlying operating system cause an unsupported Microsoft technology to fail), what is the impact on the business? Do the unsupported technologies have information security implications? Customers that choose to remain on unsupported offerings could find themselves vulnerable to security flaws that are no longer Microsoft’s responsibility to identify and fix.
- If available, what is the cost of extended support? Extended support is available for a select handful of offerings on this year’s list – but at a price. Often the dollars spent towards extended support could make a sizeable dent in the cost to migrate to a newer version.
- If applicable, why does the organization want to remain on an unsupported version? It’s a rudimentary question, but an important one as it uncovers bigger issues related to the alignment between the customer’s IT roadmap and Microsoft’s. When faced with this question many companies find that they don’t have a clear answer, and it is the catalyst for a broader analysis of technical strategy.
It’s important to understand the fine print governing end of support for Microsoft products. Like most things Microsoft, cost-optimized navigation of the changes requires expert clarification of contractual terms, well-planned alignment of the customer’s IT roadmap with Microsoft’s roadmap, and insight into Microsoft’s motivations and business objectives.
Microsoft license and cost optimization is an NPI center of excellence. Contact us if you’d like to learn about our services – NPI is not a reseller, we are unbiased licensing experts.
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