What are legacy systems? Legacy systems are simply incumbent computer systems that are both installed and working. In other words, the term is not pejorative, but the opposite. Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ language, addressed this issue succinctly, if not with a little sarcasm to drive his point home: "Legacy code" often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.
What are legacy systems? Legacy systems are simply incumbent computer systems that are both installed and working. In other words, the term is not pejorative, but the opposite. Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ language, addressed this issue succinctly, if not with a little sarcasm to drive his point home: "Legacy code" often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.
Many enterprise-grade software systems have reliably served the needs of their businesses, and the people who use them, for years and even decades. These legacy systems have survived multiple releases and multiple revisions of their help manuals and continue to keep the business humming.
A tremendous amount of business data and processes is tied up in legacy systems, ranging from mainframes to custom applications to other applications lacking accessible interfaces.
One benefit of these systems is their reliability and high performance. As a result, organizations are reluctant to abandon them for new technologies. In addition, the data residing in legacy systems is extremely valuable to the business, used in vital initiatives including business intelligence (BI) and analytics. These initiatives often support mission-critical operations, including marketing, HR, customer support, finance, logistics, and more, contributing to an organization’s competitive advantage.
Although legacy data is an indispensable resource, IT teams struggle to find efficient and cost-effective ways to access and leverage it for business purposes. Consider the following challenges:
Want to learn more? Read part 2 of my blog tomorrow!