The article never said what 90’s tec was being used so I think this article is BS. Just a piss poor job of design and implementation. No one would use 90’s tec (Remote Procedure Calls) in the 2010 would of servlets/EJBs.
Well, there could be some old stuff on the back end. Old sql scripts, etc. I also read somewhere else they were using a lot of existing open source, and who knows how old some of that junk was. I’ve worked with government software. They work the old in wherever they can because its what they know. There is for some a palpable fear of taking on the new stuff. I not only find the author’s remarks credible, I am a bit surprised he’s only pushed it back to the 90’s. Unravel the whole mess, and I’d take an even money bet you’ll find even older chunks in there somewhere.