Keep your options open

Decisions you make now about application development will still be with you in ten years, so consider this: if you are still writing applications to a specific platform (VB comes to mind), then you are effectively locking your organization out of any potential savings that could be gained by migrating to Linux down the road.  I've written about this before:

"... it's not too late to keep your options open for the future.  You can maintain your future flexibility by making it a policy that all new applications be platform neutral and employ open standards whenever possible. You have complete control over this for applications developed by your internal staff, of course. But what if you only have Visual Basic programmers on staff? They will cost you too much lost opportunity in the long run, and should be either retrained or replaced. By continuing to develop exclusively for Windows, you will lock your organization out of significant potential savings for years to come. The expenses you incur now by adjusting your staff skill set will keep you from writing more applications that will restrict your options in the future."