Are you still maintaining a GOLD environment?

Summary:

Whilst there are a number of promotion tools on the market it still seems there is always something you can't export/extract with them in order to remove the need for a GOLD environment - even so, do most people still have a GOLD environment?

Content (required):

Do you have a strategy on maintaining GOLD - i.e. an annual clone and manual updates inbetween, never cloned just maintain manual updates, etc...

Version (include the version you are using, if applicable):

Code Snippet (add any code snippets that support your topic, if applicable):