We are currently on SEP/SEPM 12.1 MP7 and I was going to upgrade SEPMs (Windows Server 2008 R2 with SQL 2008 R2) to 14 MP2 and then the clients, which can to 14 MP2. I thought 12.1 had reached end of life on April 3, 2017, and was replaced by 14, but with 12.1 MP8 being released about the same time as 14 MP2 I’m confused. Therefore, I have the following questions:
1) What’s the future for 12.1 versus 14?
2) Can I have 14 MP2 SEPMs and manage and provide virus definitions for SEP 12.1 MP6/7/8 clients?
3) If I upgrade SEPMs from 12.1 MP7 to 14 MP2, will the SEPM have 12.1 MP8 packages, which I can use to create packages for our XP clients (which can never be upgraded/replaced with a newer OS)?
NOTE: After successfully upgrading our two SEPMs to 14, I was going to build out a new SEPM server on Windows Server 2016 with SQL 2016 and enable replication to migrate to a newer OS and retire SEPMs on Window sSErver 2008 R2.