SearchWinIT has a good article summarizing arguments for and against Vista migration. What I like is that Bernie Klinder, the author, doesn't mention Aero and similar things, as an advantage. He focuses mostly on technical arguments; most of them are relevant for system administrators.
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However, his first pro-argument is that Vista reduces the time spent by users searching for documents. I, somehow, doubt that. I think that desktop search is generally overestimated. Everyone is just so fascinated by the success of Google. So many think that search is a killer feature for everything. How often do you search for documents on your PC? I am usually working on many documents, but I search for a document, maybe once a month. And usually, it takes me only a few minutes to find it on an XP machine.
Since I started using Vista, I spend most of my time searching for functions which were moved to a different location. In the beginning, users will spend a lot of time with Vista. That's for sure.
In my view, his second pro-argument is much more important. Actually, it is the reason why I want to migrate to Vista as soon as possible. It is Vista's new imaging technology. This will save us a lot of time because it enables us to use the same image on all our desktops and laptops.
The other benefits Bernie mentions are quite reasonable, too: easier network access for mobile users, better OS security, better Windows Firewall, better data encryption for laptop users (Bitlocker), better desktop management (Group Policy for example), no need for third party imaging tools anymore, and energy savings.
An important argument against the upgrade to Vista is the migration costs, of course. Aside from the cost of the OS, you have to consider costs for application and compatibility testing, deployment, and training. The latter is, probably, the most expensive one. Vista has really many surprises in store for users and system administrators, alike.
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But the main argument against a migration to Vista now is compatibility, that's my opinion. Microsoft never released an OS before being that much incompatible with its predecessor. It will take a quite sometime until most software and hardware vendors will have their products ready for Vista. I am sure that there are tons of Windows applications which will never run on Vista. So this time, it is not because of stability issue, but of compatibility that would stop you now from adopting Microsoft's latest OS.
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