Analysts have urged users to take extra care when buying
extended support from Microsoft after the software giant changed
its stated support policy on two operating systems in the past
week.
Microsoft has quietly extended "hot fix" support on Windows 98
by six months to 16 January 2004. This follows its decision last to
extend standard support for Windows NT 4.0 by another year until
the end of 2004. Support was previously due to end on 31December
2003.
In a paper on extended support from Microsoft, Gartner analyst
Michael Silver warned users to take care not to pay for support
they might not need.
"Some Gartner clients have already paid for extended support for
NT 4.0 Workstation into 2005." With the changes in policy, these
extended support agreements are no longer required."
He urged users to include clauses in their support contracts
with software suppliers that allow them to take advantage of future
policy changes.
Mark Blower, senior researcher at Butler Group, said that any
change in a support policy would affect the original support
contract. "Users are paying a premium for extended support." In the
light of the recent changes he said, "Users have to question
whether extended support is the best option."
Lars Ahlgren, senior marketing manager at Microsoft, admitted
users would expect Microsoft to stick with its published timeline
for stopping support. But in the company's defence he said, "We are
being flexible to customers' needs."