On Oct 10, 2009, at 3:08 PM, Alan McKay 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. > > For the win! > > This is by far the best approach if you want to bring them along. It > has to be THEIR decision, so the best way to get them to make that > decision is to sit back and say "OK, if you don't want to upgrade that > is fine, but we still have to make sure we are prepared for when that > hardware fails, so here is what we'll do ..." > > That will probably scare the crap out of them enough to change their > minds :-) Can you get something like the average lifespan of the circuits in hours ? There should be something saying that in the best case scenario the processor can work X thousand hours and die. Although I don't know where that information could be available :-) -Giovanni