Agreed it's possible. In fact our main line of deployment is web application which is fairly up to date feature wise, but it still degrades to the lowest denomi

Agreed it's possible. In fact our main line of deployment is web application which is fairly up to date feature wise, but it still degrades to the lowest denominator. However, the resistance is usually budgetary and apathy related rather than for any technical reason. They are thinking about it, but it's still cheaper to keep your old stuff than update it, even if it is old.