nelsonj-902869 (10/19/2010)
...Where I work, we make servers go five to seven years, not just two. We can't afford to be on the cutting edge of technology, since the edge seems to leap forward at such a pace that county budgets could never keep up. We'll let eBay and their staff test out the cutting edge stuff and MAYBE in 2015 we'll be doing what eBay does now. 😉
I heard from someone at Texaco a few years ago that they want all hardware AND software to last 10 years. So they are just getting off SQL 2000 completely now. I think that's a great philosophy. You could be adding in new software every few years, but make the old hardware and software last, or at re-purpose it if you really need to upgrade.