Thoughtful points all around. I'd add that your suggestion for #2 (migrate from one system to another every handful of years) has some pretty painful costs ass

Thoughtful points all around. I'd add that your suggestion for #2 (migrate from one system to another every handful of years) has some pretty painful costs associated (PD/training, re-implementing customizations, data migration costs). At least when you've taken care to own your data/backups, this kind of migration is possible. 5-10 years is far too long to wait for system interoperability. My company (Clever - getclever.com) has bolted a read-only API onto a dozen of the top SIS systems today, would love to hear your thoughts (I'm dan@).