[t951]

Lots of good advice, but I would disagree on the vbox recommendation.

VMWare is fast enough to large enterprise production servers on, there is a massive install base, and lots of prebuilt servers, etc. It also has a huge support base. vbox.....not so much.

Make sure, whatever you do that you do the following:

Have a backup plan. (Whether it is backup tapes, or replicating the server data, whatever).
TEST the plan!!!! REGULARLY!!! (Most of the sites I visit simply run backups, but never test a full recovery).

Make sure you have nothing proprietary. Standards are your friend.
Don't overbuy where you don't need to. Work computers don't need great video cards.
Don't skimp where its important. (Good drives, memory, servers, etc).