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A client-server application needs to be installed on every client. The diversity of client configurations in most enterprises results in high maintenance costs.

PowerBuilder client-server applications are designed to be used in an intranet environment, and cannot readily be used over the Internet.

Difficulty of integrating with other applications

Difficulty of hiring skilled individuals

Many developers are moving to J2EE and .NET,,and are less willing to work with legacy development platforms.

J2EE is proven enterprise-grade technology

Large ISVs and enterprise users prefer J2EE over other platforms because J2EE is the de-facto industry standard for building reliable, scalable, and secure enterprise-level applications.

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Rewriting the original desktop application requires tremendous investment of development and management resources. Moreover, significant training effort is required to either re-train PowerBuilder developers or build a new development team.

The J2EE platform lacks the ultra-high productivity of 4GL languages. A single line of 4GL code often takes many lines of code to rewrite using Java.

Low end user productivity of typical Web applications

The interactivity and presentation richness of typical page-based Web application user interfaces is low. Multiple page reloads are required to complete a single task, resulting in an often frustrating user experience.