Heh, the last company I worked for had a (very popular, very successful) 20 year old desktop app that worked by downloading the client's entire database on login, then doing regular syncs with the back end and sending batch updates as the user made changes. It was an awful system that everyone hated, and the company was desperately trying to figure out how to move away from it without doing a complete rewrite. Maybe I should let them know that they're actually ahead of the curve if they can just hold out for a few more years...