SQL Server 2016 left extended support on 14 July 2026. If your ERP runs on it, its security-update position needs a recorded decision.

For many Microsoft Dynamics GP clients, and businesses on other ERP systems, that choice has landed in one of two places. You bought Extended Security Updates (ESUs) to keep the servers patched. Or the deadline put a bigger question on the table: should the ERP itself move to the cloud?

Either way, the SQL Server under your ERP still needs a plan. The general ledger, the payables run and the stock count all live in its databases. That makes this an ERP question, not only an IT one.

Two places you might be standing

You are on ESUs, with no cloud ERP decision yet. SQL Server 2016 ESUs can provide critical security updates for up to three years. They do not restore standard technical support, general bug fixes or new features; Microsoft may include non-security fixes at its discretion. They buy planning time, but the next step still needs a per-workload decision.

You are weighing a cloud ERP. A move off GP or another on-premises ERP takes time. Until cut-over, the SQL Server still needs an explicit security-update plan: eligible ESUs as a bridge or a supported version/service target. Record the databases holding history, reporting and integrations that must survive the ERP move.

For Microsoft Dynamics GP clients, the dates depend on your GP version. Microsoft stopped selling new perpetual GP licences to new customers on 1 April 2025. For the current release of GP (version 18.x, kept up to date), product enhancements, tax and regulatory updates and technical support end on 31 December 2029, and security patches, if needed, continue until 30 April 2031. Older GP versions follow their own, earlier lifecycle dates, so check which version you run.

Eligible ESUs can cover SQL Server 2016 for up to three years, to July 2029, a few months before current GP product support ends. For a business planning to move off GP, they may be a practical bridge instead of upgrading SQL for an ERP it will replace. Check eligibility, costs and timing before deciding.

Not on ESUs yet? Waiting does not lower the ESU bill. For a first SQL Server 2016 ESU subscription through Azure Arc, Microsoft bills for the missed part of the current ESU year. If you first enrol in a later year, you must also buy coverage for the previous ESU years. The first year ends on 13 July 2027. Every month you wait is a month less to plan.

Both paths start in the same place: knowing what runs under your ERP today, and what each server needs until the next decision is made.

The danger on either path is that the decision gets made from the infrastructure side alone. A server gets upgraded or a licence gets switched, and finance finds out at month-end.

Four things to know about the SQL Server under your ERP

1. Which databases your ERP depends on. An ERP is rarely one database. A GP install usually has a system database plus one per company, and often reporting, integration and add-on databases alongside. Before anything changes, you need the full list and a name next to each one.

2. When change is safe. Month-end and year-end close are when your ERP can least afford a hiccup. Any work on the SQL Server, including the discovery that comes before it, should be timed around them. The person who knows that calendar best is usually the ERP master user, not IT.

3. How your ERP version and SQL Server version tie together. Each ERP release is supported on specific SQL Server versions. Upgrade SQL Server without checking the ERP side, or the other way round, and you can land on a combination nobody supports. Check both before you plan either.

4. Where your ERP roadmap is heading. A SQL Server upgrade only pays off if the ERP stays long enough to use it. If a move off GP is on the cards, the timing of that move should shape the SQL Server decision, not the other way round.

Who should be in the room

Three people, at minimum. The head of IT owns the risk. The financial director owns the cost. The ERP master user owns the timing and knows which databases the business cannot run without.

When all three agree before anything moves, there are fewer surprises at close.

Two separate questions for every workload

How it is licensed. Keep your existing licences, with or without Software Assurance, move to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing through Azure Arc, or use a SQL Server subscription. A production server running around the clock on existing licences may cost little to keep. A project server that only runs for part of the year tells a different story. The answer depends on cores, run hours and the licences and Software Assurance you already have.

How it receives security updates. For SQL Server 2016, use eligible ESUs while planning the next step, upgrade to a supported SQL Server version, or migrate to a supported service or version. Moving SQL Server 2016 unchanged to an Azure VM still requires separately paid ESUs for eligible production coverage. Migration location alone does not resolve its ended lifecycle.

Keeping existing rights or choosing PAYG does not itself restore SQL Server 2016 security updates. ESUs, a supported-version upgrade or a supported-target migration address that separate question. Qualifying non-production and disaster recovery benefits must be checked rather than treated as universal free coverage.

Know before you license

That is why we start with the SQL Estate Assessment. It is a fixed-scope Braintree service that ends in a decision pack for each workload:

• What is running, and on what.

• Configuration and compatibility findings, each with an owner and a next action.

• Your existing licence metric, including core-based or Server+CAL, Software Assurance and CALs where relevant, plus the ERP each workload serves, its version and any planned move.

• A cost comparison in one stated currency, with Azure usage, licensing, any ESU back-bill and our fees on separate lines.

• Two recommendations per workload: the licensing basis and the security-update or supported-target plan. ESUs can be a bridge where eligibility and the ERP timeline fit.

Sometimes the recommendation is to keep your existing licences as they are. That is a useful answer to have before a renewal or an audit.

What the assessment needs from you

Before discovery starts, we agree in writing which servers are in scope, the access we need, who is involved on your side (IT, your DBA and, for ERP workloads, your ERP master user), the dates, and how your data is handled. Discovery is scheduled around your month-end and year-end close.

To produce Microsoft’s assessment output, each in-scope server is connected to Azure Arc. That means:

• Installs on each server: the Azure Connected Machine agent and the SQL Server extension. The Best Practices Assessment also needs Azure Monitor Agent and a Log Analytics workspace, which can add Azure charges.

• Access: an administrator or service account for the installs, an Azure subscription to register the servers in, and outbound connectivity from the servers to Azure.

• Eligibility: Microsoft’s Migration Assessment covers Windows-based SQL Server 2014 or later on Windows Server 2016 or later and excludes failover cluster instances. Best Practices Assessment needs a qualifying licence type. Server+CAL instances must be registered as LicenseOnly even with active Software Assurance, so do not assume they qualify for that BPA output. Eligible instances can still receive Migration Assessment. Instances outside eligibility are inventoried and compared without the unavailable output.

• Afterwards: whether the agents stay connected or are removed once the decision pack is delivered is agreed in writing at the start.

Connecting to Arc for assessment does not move your databases or automatically change SQL Server licensing or activate PAYG. We record your actual current licence basis. Braintree assessment fees and additional Azure charges, including Log Analytics where used, are agreed separately.

Assessment onboarding is part of the assessment. A later licence change, ESU purchase, upgrade, migration or managed service is separately approved, scoped and quoted after the decision pack. Full SQL maintenance and backup-only support are possible service routes; responsibilities, exclusions and service levels require the approved schedule and signed terms.

Why Braintree

For 10+ years we have helped 220+ South African businesses grow, and our team includes 100+ Microsoft-certified professionals. We check the estate before we touch the licence.

Request your SQL Estate Assessment.

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