Of course, it is hard to say without knowing more about it, but it seems that jiggawatts solution is closer to optimal than the second one. The 50GB database could fit on a USB drive after all and we know empirically that a single SQL server database was able to handle the requests since the old system worked.
Also, the fact that a consulting company was able to turn a part time gig for one person into a $100M+ project at the taxpayer's expense is very frustrating.
Also, the fact that a consulting company was able to turn a part time gig for one person into a $100M+ project at the taxpayer's expense is very frustrating.