I wasn't imagining a full rewrite, more like a "holding area" that could defer some of the load. Again I may be totally wrong about this—I have never written a COBOL system, and if there is some plausible way to make it effective for this problem in a reasonable timeframe, then I understand why that would make sense. I understand all of your reasoning and agree with it in general. I know rewrites are very expensive and often ineffective. I'm just skeptical that the system can be modified quickly to deal with this new load. But again I am not an expert and could be totally wrong, and I'm open to being convinced.