Legacy Modernization: Out with the old in with the new

Technology is always evolving and with that, so should our systems. The modernization of a system is the process of evolving restrictive, legacy technologies to modern technologies while keeping the original business logic and data. Although it may seem like a significant investment (both time and monetary) at first, you will see benefits in the long run. Below is a list of a few common benefits.

Benefits:

• Save Cost: Maintaining legacy systems can get very expensive. Business needs and processes are constantly changing and legacy systems make it difficult to adapt to such changes. A company will spend about 60%-80% of its IT budget maintaining their legacy system. Most of these costs come from maintaining old code and functionality that requires programming languages that only a very few developers know how to work with anymore. With modernization, we move towards easily available modern programming languages. In addition, we also see savings as systems move away from onsite data centers and move towards the cloud.
• Increase Staff Productivity: When modernizing these legacy systems, you are also addressing many technical limitations from the previous code as well as difficult user interfaces, both of which affect staff productivity. The modern system will be easier to diagnose and fix whenever an issue arises. Furthermore, performance will also see improvements.
• Remove Technological Limitations: Legacy systems normally rely on outdated technologies. Not only do these outdated technologies have limitations that modern technologies alleviate, but, as mentioned earlier, the skills required to maintain these technologies are disappearing into the stone age. It has come to a point where finding the skillset for these technologies has become a huge challenge, and with that making any kind of enhancements.
• More easily scalable: By moving over to modern technologies, you are facilitating enhancements and growth. We already spoke about having easily accessible resources, but furthermore, with modernization, you are also opening yourself up to integrations with other 3rd party software. Third party software can be used to share data, authenticate users, use features like Google Maps, etc.
• More Secure: Legacy systems tend to be less secure from cyber attacks and malware. Many vulnerabilities can be addressed by updating your legacy system.

Many companies are aware of the need for modernization, but are hesitating. Taking the leap can be intimidating, but with the right IT partner, you can come up with an efficient strategy to smoothly make the transition. Contact us to take the first step towards modernization.