What is Legacy System and Reasons Why Companies Today Must Apply Them? • Slash

Still puzzled and not sure what is legacy system? Then this will be an interesting post for you. Even today, legacy system have several benefits in your business operations. However, there are many misconceptions about this entire system. For instance, some people believe that legacy system are useless in the modern world with new and improved technologies around them. But in reality, they are still in use and benefitting many organizations.

So, this post will explain the meaning of legacy system and why they are still significant. You will also come across the six reasons this system can permit you to run your business successfully.

Table of Contents

What are legacy system?

So what are legacy system? Well, legacy system are referred to old computing, including programming languages, software, and hardware systems. Compared to the new technology, these are often outdated systems in terms of performance. In other words, the legacy system’s meaning stays the same – using old-fashioned software or hardware in the presence of modern technology.

legacy system could meet the requirements they were originally designed for. But some people believe that these are not good companions in the long run, especially when your company is growing. So whatever this system was doing a decade ago will do the same in the future. Also, since legacy system are based on older technology, it won’t allow the software or hardware to interact with newer systems.

Well, indeed, legacy system are difficult to be integrated with new technologies. At the same time, the cost of maintaining legacy system is high. But it doesn’t mean they are disadvantageous. You should keep in mind that legacy system are the core reasons why businesses are successful today.

Examples of legacy system

Surprisingly, many public and private organizations still rely on legacy system. Some of the legacy system examples are:

Banking sectors
Government agencies
State revenue departments

Why Do Some Companies Still Use legacy system?

You must be wondering what are legacy system and why they are still used by organizations. Here are a few reasons:

Easy and fast framework
The new technology lacks a proven track
Latest systems are too complex to understand
Upper management is too resistant to changing the infrastructure

Also Read: Code Refactoring – 5 Ways to Make Complex Code Simple

Reasons Why You Should Use legacy system

Now that you understand what are legacy system? Let’s explore the reasons why you should use legacy system to run a business in this era full of new technologies.

1. People Are Familiar with legacy system

One of the main reasons for choosing legacy system is user-friendliness. Almost everyone knows how to use a platform based on a legacy framework. Therefore, it allows organizations to work smoothly on their daily tasks without any obstacles. Moreover, with legacy system, everyone from your staff can use software and access records.

2. legacy system Are Efficient

The second reason for still using legacy hardware and software is efficiency. Some legacy system, although old-fashioned, still work tremendously. And most essentially, these systems are generally designed to maximize work capacity. Likewise, in most cases, they are extremely reliable and long-lasting systems.

3. legacy system Assure Business Continuity

Undoubtedly, new and modern hardware and software have their own importance in the business world. However, switching to new technology is a complicated process that may temporarily cease your business operations. But as legacy system are functional using standard ways, there are no chances for your business to take a break.

4. legacy system Saves Training Cost Required for New Technologies

Every day, a new technology emerges in the industry and makes its place in the market. But switching from legacy system to the latest solutions can be a lot more complicated than it seems. You usually need to train your workforce when you plan to shift your entire business to a new software environment. The training is expensive and often requires new hardware, space, and trainers.

5. legacy system Mitigate Technology-Based Risks

There are always risks when implementing modern systems in your business. What if the new software has technological defects? Or if it is unable to meet your needs? That is why most organizations prefer sticking to legacy system because they are known for their performance. Also, the outcomes are tried and tested several times.

And although modern systems offer a wide range of features, not all are actually required by organizations. In fact, additional attributes are sometimes confusing and time-consuming, especially for business owners and management.

6. legacy system are Mostly Customized

Last but not least, legacy system came more than two decades ago, and they are customized solutions which specifically target business goals. That is why businesses prefer using them because they are made to deal with exclusive tasks.

Backing Up Your legacy systems Data through Data Migration

Although you can’t update your existing legacy systems, you can still migrate the data for backup. Legacy systems migration is possible if you have the right people to do it because a successful migration is a step-by-step process. For example:

Fetching the existing data from the systems
Data transformation to match new formats
Data cleansing to ensure complete data transference
Validation of data and loading it into the new modern system

Also Read: How to Find a Reliable Tech Partner for Your Startup | 5 Keys to Follow

Conclusion

What are legacy system? This term means using old computing methods to manage your business. There is a common misconception that legacy system typically run on the latest hardware and software, which is not true. In fact, they are non-updateable as most providers don’t offer upgrades.

However, legacy system can help your business run without any pauses. They are familiar, cost-saving, and risk-free solutions which help you and your staff succeed in achieving organizational goals. Moreover, you can also shift the legacy system-based records to the cloud through data migration.

At Slash, we have teams of experts who can help you with data migration with the right tools to ensure smooth data transfer. Moreover, we can also help you manage your existing legacy systems. Contact us to learn more about our services related to legacy system.