Managing the Lifecycle of Windows NT Systems

The Challenge

Many organizations still have Windows NT system within their IT infrastructure, running everything from ERP in the datacenter to production controllers on the plant floor. Changes to critical systems running NT pose considerable business risk. These systems often support fragile legacy applications and do so with very limited computing resources. Any change, including an OS patch, has the potential to cause a production outage that threatens business operations. In many cases, the added difficulty of repairing a legacy application can extend the length of any outage that occurs.

Migration of these systems to a current platform, if even possible, is often very expensive and must be prioritized against competing projects that could add incremental value to the business. Yet leaving NT systems in place is also an expensive proposition. NT systems that are on the network are subject to vulnerabilities and require protection. Failure to do so systems can result in downtime, lost or compromised data, penalties due to regulatory non-compliance and other costly business risks. While Microsoft has extended the availability of support for critical security issues on NT beyond the original 2006 deadline, the cost of such support is prohibitive for many organizations and will increase dramatically in the next 2 years.

The Solidcore Solution

Solidcore's S3 Control provides enterprises with a way to extend the lifespan of applications built on legacy operating systems without incurring business risk. By tightly locking down NT systems against all unwanted change, Solidcore S3 Control ensures that vulnerabilities cannot be exploited while eliminating the cost and risk associated with patching. It also provides complete visibility into all internal change as well as protection against any attempts to change these fragile systems outside of policy controls.

With Solidcore S3 Control, NT systems can be “Solidified” into appliance-like systems that are impervious both to change by malicious exploits and unwanted internal change. Solidcore’s approach ensures that protection is constant regardless of patch level or user access. The benefits of this approach include:

Increased Security

• Complete protection against known and undiscovered NT vulnerabilities
• Only authorized code will run

Increased Availability and Integrity of Systems Awaiting Migration

• Elimination of unauthorized changes
• Complete record of all changes made

Reduced costs

• No need to test or deploy patches
• Elimination of need for system Anti-Virus
• Reduced breakage of devices due to bad or poorly tested patches

Solidcore S3 Control mitigates the risks inherent in running critical applications on legacy platforms and enables the organization to migrate on their own schedule.