Does it work? Yes

Should it be used? Not if you want a robust scaleable solution.

In the environment where I work we had to buy and install a server solely to let users query data away from the live environment.

We found that our live servers had strange locking and timeout problems which were solved by replicating data to a reporting server.

However, this has simply shifted the problem elsewhere. The other issue is that we now have an unknown number of "mission critical" applications that are uncatalogued and unsupported. I am currently working on a project where we have to put a compromise solution in place to cater for such unknown mission critical apps.

There is nothing wrong with the article. It presents a solution that works.