Our undergraduate dissertation deals with the economic and the risk analysis in connection with the migration of Microsoft Windows NT4 to Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server. By the end of this year, Microsoft will discontinue its support for their networking system Windows NT4. This means that no more updates and patches will be produced to cover newly discovered security gaps and programming errors.

This circumstance forces the user to convert to a new generation of Microsoft operating systems. In our undergraduate dissertation we deal with this compulsory migration and present the results of our scenarios based on two virtual migration infrastructures of KMU-firms of different sizes. As IT-expenditure costs are often existential for smaller companies, we have calculated for both new networks the factors TCO and ROI and also compared them with each-other.

This undergraduate dissertation does not only address the business aspect of the migration to Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. It is also thought as an important instrument for KMU-firms to support their migration to a new operating system. For this purpose, we have prepared tables and important comparison charts and even have included the brand-new system software Windows 2003.

For us, it is obvious that KMU-firms with a rather small or even no IT-department at all, will face quiet some difficulties to overlook this sector of the IT-market. Just for these companies we have compared prices of the best-selling hardware products and also had a close look at the license products of Microsoft.

Finally, we are happy to present a document, that can be understood by IT-laypersons as well and therefore can be an excellent help to all those who will soon have to go this ?way of enforcement?.