Consider buying a second user server to get into some decent equipment. Stick to an HP environment, and make sure you are at the G7 series so your machine is actually only around 1 or 2 years old. - We have just purchased a G7 DL380 with dual processor and 6 x 500Gb disks so you can play some raid games to build in resilience. Make sure you have some slots left over for future disk expansion.
Avoid the older HP machines or be very careful you don't drop into 32Bit hardware (your old systems will probably not run 2012 (64bit)). Our saving on the Kit was huge (estimate 60%) at £3000 all in with other resilience options and HP warranty. The other trick we used to control costs was to use the 'Open Value Subscription' mechanism to buy your software the costs are really low but require a yearly commitment. (we have 2 server licences, 50 users and it's all flexible and generous and all the Pupil software's are free - great for an OS upgrade at the desktop.)
Not sure about Hyper-V and virtualisation - just don't see the advantage for a small IT setup - they will never understand it and makes us IT chaps invaluable - perhaps that's it. KISS appears appropriate - (Keep is simple stupid) and now the big decision - Do I go 2012 R2 or 2012 - as it will be the OS installed for at least 5 years the way schools run.
All I have to do now is work SBS 2008 out of the environment without a technical fall over tripping up the process.
Simon
