The Web is platform independent. In heterogeneous systems expensive software porting or cross-platform development isn't necessary. With hypermedia abilities and the elements of classic graphical user interface the developer can develop ergonomic applications. WWW, email and discussion groups can, when implemented properly, improve internal communication and organisation. The building blocks of an intranet solution are for a large part freely available on the Net.
Web technologies make it possible to give old, still operating systems a facelift.
For a relatively small amount of money existing client computers can be made Web compatible. At least for the current databases there are useful approaches. An in-depth look at the various database interfaces isn't possible for this turbulent market at the moment. A lot of unsolved conceptual problems All the big database producers, like Sybase, Informix or Versant, are trying to sell Web programming tools. However, in practice the CGI-based applications are plagued with various conceptual weaknesses.