Over the last 2 years, I have been running a bitcoin service.
Now the disc usage is getting out of hand, and I am wondering if there is any improvements in that in newer versions?

The one I am running is quite old (it does not have access to any bitcoins), and since I am using a custom patch, it may not be so simple to upgrade.

Also what amount of disc usage is acceptable atm ?

Currently I have 20GB used just by .bitcoin