The flipside to this is the older technologies start to become end-of-lifed or unsupported by the vendor (like .NET Remoting or .NET 1.1). In that case, there

The flipside to this is the older technologies start to become end-of-lifed or unsupported by the vendor (like .NET Remoting or .NET 1.1). In that case, there seems to be some level of continual need to push the application forward, but of course we want to avoid the kind of inconsistent layering described here. It's a tough problem. The easy answer of "regular rewrites every 5-7 years" doesn't sit well with paying customers or management.