For all of you that are using Itanium versions of Microsoft products, be aware that the company plans on phasing out support of the architecture. Don’t panic though – this process will take about 8 years to fully take effect. Microsoft claims that Itanium is being replaced but more capable technologies from makers Intel and AMD, and will be the way of the past in a few short years, although Intel has just introduced a new version of Itanium as recently as February.
According to Dan Reger of Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 R2 will be the last version of Windows Server to support Itanium along with SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010, which have yet to be released. Windows Server 2008 R2 will be supported until July 9, 2013, while extended support will continue until July 10, 2018. Red Hat is also mimicking Microsoft as phasing out support as well.
You can’t say you haven’t been warned!