Converting to SQL Server

So where I work is thinking about one day moving to SQL server. Right now they have indexed files that aren't normalized with repeating fields in them and lots of repeat data and blank space (so a customer number in one file may be stored literally in 10 other files that are easily realted). In the intrest of saving time and money I think that they will not normalize, index, or anything to any of these files. From what I hear it will be a straight field by field creation for the most part and preserving the primary keys.

My question: I keep thinking this is going to be massive hit on performance and maintaince. How much would converting in such a manner hurt the performance of their database and how much could it potentially add to maintaince?

Depends on what they're moving from, what the hardware's like, etc. If they're moving from a 4GB Gentoo box running mysql to a Pentium 350 with half a GB of RAM, there'll be a performance hit. If you've got a pretty beefy box, SQL server will do ok. It is an enterprise-level piece of software, after all -- it just takes a lot of resources to run it. Why are they thinking of changing platforms? There are other considerations when moving to Windows, such as having to keep the box patched and the patches patched, hoping you don't wind up with spyware or viruses that obliterate (or compromise) your data, etc. For my money, there's nothing better than a LAMP setup.