In the link below, Microsoft announced plans to discontinue Itanium support after Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, and Visual Studio 2010. Their mainstream support will end mid-2013 and extended support in mid-2018.
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2010/04/02/windows-server-2008-r2-to-phase-out-itanium.aspx
This should not come as a surprise. Circa 2008, Backup Exec and NetBackup forecasted this event. Backup Exec discontinued IA64 support in their BE 12 release. NetBackup discontinued support for IA64 master/media servers with the release of Windows Server 2008; only NetBackup IA64 client is available for WS2008. It's likely that NetBackup 7 will continue to support the IA64 client through Microsoft's lifecycle. However, it may eventually require running a NetBackup 7 client with newer releases of NetBackup server. Look for exact guidance in future NetBackup releases.
With Microsoft exiting the IA64 market, how much longer will the IA64 platform survive for Linux and other OS'es?
Has your company deployed the IA64 platform? If so, how does this impact your plans?
Regards,
Brian Smith
