Legacy systems are considered to be systems that have been operating in production for a long time. While the technology has become obsolete and the architecture outdated, it’s likely the business services provided are just as relevant today as they were when the systems were commissioned. For example, many back-office applications and scheduled jobs have been running on mainframe computers in banks for decades and continue to perform critical business operations. There does however come a time when the economics of older systems become prohibitive, providing just cause for such systems to be replaced and opportunity to update or improve the business services and reduce their overall cost. Perhaps running costs are no longer tenable or, more likely, the potential business impact of risks presented by continued running is simply too great to even contemplate.
Companies that postpone taking informed action to replace their legacy systems at the time when the economic option tells them they should be doing something, claim they’re risk-averse. Actually, they’re change-averse. The compound risk of not doing something eventually exceeds the risk presented by undertaking the necessary action way back when. Then you’re stuck! When all you want is reduced time and effort to introduce new and updated business services to better manage profitability, you find the business held to ransom by critical legacy systems that have become expensive to operate, and are too brittle to build on and too risky to replace. Commercially, that’s not a good place to be.
At Energized Work, we have developed a unique approach to legacy replacement, application and systems modernisation, designed to lower the risk associated with such migration programmes. If you’re interested in finding out more, please read our White Paper about solving legacy.
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