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