[CentOS] 10 Year old IT Infrastructure

[Stephen Nelson-Smith]

Morning,

On 10 Oct 2009, at 17:12, Brian Mathis wrote:
> The better solution would be to make sure you are prepared for when
> the hardware does fail.  Inform the client that you understand that
> they don't want to upgrade the servers, and that hardware failure is
> not a case of "if" but "when".  Lay out a plan to them describing what
> would happen when that occurs, and how you will make sure that their
> downtime is minimal.

Can't agree more.  You want to present to the client that you care  
first and foremost about their business needs.  It's a simple  
calculation - work out what's involved in maintaining the old systems,  
and compare that to the cost of upgrading.  These sorts of  
conversations are often about the difference between operational  
expenditure and capital expenditure - your client may be willing to  
pay more long term support costs, and not be prepared to buy new  
hardware and pay you to upgrade the systems.

It sounds to me that you want to upgrade because you're assuming it's  
the right thing to do.  That's a big assumption - go through the  
business cases, and make sure your client understands you're on their  
side which ever way the decision goes.

S.
--
Stephen Nelson-Smith,
Technical Director,
Atalanta Systems Ltd,
http://www.atalanta-systems.com