Unless you work for a dot-com start-up that's only a few months old, your shop probably has computer equipment or software that's been in production use for years or even decades. Computers have been around for a generation now, and inertia and tightening budgets can discourage companies from getting rid of older equipment that's doing an acceptable job. But isn't there shiny new hardware and software out there that can do it better?

A student posted such a question to the Hardware discussion in ITworld.com's forums. He wanted to know how he should move forward; what he got was a debate about whether he should change systems at all. His question, and some of the responses, are reproduced here.

Do you agree that IT pros should try to adapt their equipment to current situations? Or is it sometimes a good investment to shell out for new equipment? Respond to these opinions in ITworld.com's forums!

Need help in choosing solution

zonathen: I am a student working on a senior project in which we are designing a new system to replace a legacy system running COBOL. The business process under review currently involves a single COBOL programmer; any changes to the actual rules need to be hardcoded every year. All data needs to be hardcoded as well. The process simply does some calculations and outputs the answers to a file for further manipulation and, ultimately, printing. The business wants to upgrade this process to a modern solution that doesn't involve a mainframe or COBOL; the new process should be easy to update and change when necessary.

We are thinking of getting a server and some type of SQL-based solution (the latter to allow for easy updating and retrieval of info). Which software package best fits this problem? And what is needed to calculate the figures and ultimately output them to disk? Microsoft SQL server? Access? Oracle?

Please help!

Are you looking for a solution to the wrong problem?

Brazee: The requirements you seem to have been given are to change two tools: your computer and your language.

The business needs of a company should not necessarily involve a change of tools. Instead, they should dictate that the company run effectively. Maybe the effective way of doing your job will include eliminating those tools. But eliminating them is not a business solution. And if you replace these tools without understanding what your real business needs are, you will fail to do the job right.

The first step in this job should be to find out what the true business needs are. Second, find out what problems the current tools are solving, and the costs of the current tools. Then come up with some alternate proposals, and compare their costs and benefits with your current situation. One proposal should be to enhance what you have now. Others should be partial and full replacements. Then all your proposals should be evaluated based upon the business needs -- not on the specs you list.

Forget technology: look at your IT organization

MooreEwing: The critical

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