Windows Server 2012 Replacement

Dawson Precision Components (DPC) is a family-owned British precision engineering company founded in 1965 in Shaw, Oldham, supplying aerospace, defence, medical and motorsport clients worldwide. Their Windows Server 2012 infrastructure — which had reached Microsoft end-of-life — was running critical production control software, inspection systems and shared file services essential to factory operations.

End-of-life server infrastructure presented two critical risks: no further security patches meant growing vulnerability to cyber attack, and ageing hardware risked catastrophic failure with no supported upgrade path. A replacement needed to be planned and executed without causing downtime on the factory floor where production schedules are tightly controlled.

Foresight assessed the full server environment, mapped all dependent services and applications, designed a replacement infrastructure using current-generation Windows Server, and executed a phased migration. Production control software was tested and validated on the new platform before cutover. The old server was decommissioned only after a full parallel-run period confirmed stability.