Matthew Darwin (4/1/2015)
Archiving and index maintenance are the two reasons I've been given, though I have an inkling the real reason might simply be wanting to try it out.However, I suspect that it may well be a sensible candidate as the old table has some 700 million rows, most of which now is unneeded data.
We use partition switching to keep data for a variety of time periods - from 3 days to 15 months, depending upon what we need it for.
You'd be better off having a partition scheme based on age, not the actual date, because you'll have to alter it as time progresses.
Have a look at an example of a three day retention setup,which can be changed to suit the retention you require - http://wp.me/p3Vxvi-6S
Changing a table with 700 million rows to cater for partitioning is going to be interesting.
Edited for typo.