One thing I have not seen discussed is any recommendation on whether there is any benefit to upgrading the environment before the apps. We are currently on 8.0.3 MSP 9 (8.0.3.6 env) and trying to determine what the best strategy is. Are we better getting the upgrade to 8.1 apps done while on this known and stable environment, or are there advantages to biting the bullet and getting 9.0 in before we upgrade the apps? Obvisouly the 9.0 move means a lot longer lead time before the app would get rolled out - but if that makes sense we need to know the justification. If security is not THAT big of a deal, is there a rush to get to 9.0?

Quite honestly, the functionality of the 8.1 apps is what your users are interested in. They could care less about the env. 9.0 will be there when it besomes important to you -in the interim take care of your users.