Platform Forward GroupSQL Server 2016 has ninety days
Extended support ends July 12, 2026. The one-week triage for anyone starting late.
SQL Server 2016 extended support ends July 12, 2026. Ninety days out. If your triage is done, carry on. If it is not, here is the one-week version.
Day one: count the instances. Query the estate, do not ask it. Include the ones inside application installers; vendors bundled 2016 for years and the CMDB never met them.
Day two: sort by exposure. Internet-adjacent and compliance-scoped instances to the top of the list. The file server database for the cafeteria menu goes to the bottom.
Days three to five: for the top of the list, pick per instance: upgrade in place to a supported version, move the database to a managed service, or buy Extended Security Updates as a priced, dated bridge, never as a resting place. Write the exit date on every ESU line. ESUs without exit dates become permanent. We have seen the invoices. They compound.
Ninety days is enough for the top of the list. It is not enough for all of it, which is fine: the bottom of a sorted list can run late safely. An unsorted list cannot. Sort today.