> The database does not need round-the-clock availability (middle-of-the-night maintenance windows are no problem).

Yeah, this is idiotic. This kind of thinking is why it sometimes took three days to register for classes in college, and why I couldn't check my account balance in the evening after I got home from work/class, why I sometimes couldn't search the library catalog... etc., etc.

I can think of perhaps one of our clients who would be fine with their database being down for hours at a time at night. Maybe.