As you should (must) know, Exchange 2010 support will end this October. At that point, Microsoft will stop all support for Exchange 2010, including all security fixes. If you are still running Exchange 2010, you must act now and start moving to Exchange 2016 or to Office 365. For an Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration I have written a couple of blogs before:

Moving from Exchange 2010 to Office 365.

Moving from Exchange 2010 to Office 365 Part II.

But what most people don’t realize is that Exchange 2016 mainstream support will also end this October. From that point forward, Exchange 2016 will be in extended support. This means no more Cumulative Updates and only Security Updates will be released when there updates are marked as ‘critical’.

Note. There’s no direct upgrade path from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2019, so if you want to follow this route, you must move to Exchange 2016 first, followed by a migration to Exchange 2019.

If you move to Office 365 and have moved all your Mailboxes to Exchange Online, things are getting interesting. In this situation, you still need at least one Exchange server on-premises for management purposes. Microsoft supplies a free Exchange 2016 hybrid license for this situation (there is no free Exchange 2019 hybrid license!), and Microsoft is committed to support this configuration. At least until the moment a final solution is delivered by Microsoft to remove that last Exchange server from your on-premises organization. According to Microsoft, “this does not increase your risk profile in any way” as stated in their article “Exchange Server 2016 and End of Mainstream Support”.
If you still have mailboxes on-premises, the Microsoft recommendation is to move to Exchange 2019. Mainstream support for Exchange 2019 will end on January 1st, 2024, and extended support for Exchange 2019 will end on October 14, 2025 (this is the same date as end of extended support for Exchange 2016).

What to do

1. If you are still on Exchange 2010, I would urge you to move to Exchange 2016 as soon as possible. Mainstream support for Exchange 2016 will stop this October, but according to Microsoft you are still safe since Security Updates will be released when needed. There’s no direct need to upgrade to Exchange 2019 at this moment, but this is something you must consider the upcoming time. I do know customers however that only want products that are in mainstream support, so if you are in this boat you must move to Exchange 2019 of course.
2. If you are running Exchange 2013, you must start moving to Exchange 2019 anytime soon for optimal support and skip Exchange 2016.
3. If you are in an Exchange 2016 hybrid scenario and all your mailboxes are in Exchange Online, you are safe to stay in this situation until Microsoft releases a final solution for that dreaded last Exchange server on-premises for management purposes.