If your company has been around a while, you’re probably familiar with the term legacy.
In computing terms, legacy is the tech-speak way of referring to older, outdated, no-longer-supported software and hardware that’s still in use by a company.
As you can imagine, legacy systems have their downsides. In 2024, SnapLogic unveiled their Censuswide survey. They spoke with "750 IT decision-makers in organizations with over 250 employees across the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany."
When discussing legacy environments, 63% of respondents said they’re seeing a “moderate to severe negative impact of technical debt” due to legacy systems. This was especially true in the finance industry.
“Outdated and legacy technology” was also listed as the “main contributor to the accumulation of technical debt in IT systems."
Technical debt is the hidden cost of relying on outdated or short-term tech solutions that slow down your systems, increase risk, and drain resources over the long term.
Easy Target
Part of tech debt is vulnerability to cyberattacks.
Security patches for out-of-date software and hardware don’t exist—when the equipment is stamped as “end of life,” or EOL, companies stop supporting it. This gives cybercriminals an easy target.
In 2024, CDK Global, a software solutions provider for the automotive industry, was targeted by a ransomware attack. Most of its systems were affected, as were approximately 15,000 dealerships (source). Legacy systems seem to have been the weak spot—having "known vulnerabilities that hadn’t been patched or updated, providing easy targets for attackers" (source).
Also in 2024, Change Healthcare, a healthcare technology provider and part of UnitedHealth Group, got hit with ransomware via a legacy server that didn't use multifactor authentication (MFA) (source).
The attack compromised the confidential health information of at least 100 million people in the US (source).
Pros of Legacy Systems
Even with all their potential problems, legacy systems are used for a reason—several, actually—especially by established businesses.
- Legacy systems can be critical to a company’s IT infrastructure. Banks use legacy environments to process transactions and manage accounts. Branches of the US government, like the IRS, are steeped in legacy systems (source). And retail merchants report spending “58% of their IT budget to maintain legacy systems” (source).
- Legacy environments are familiar. They’ve been used a long time, so staff know exactly how to finesse the systems to get what they need.
- Legacy products seem cost effective. After all, you’re simply paying for upkeep, right?
Not quite.
Yes, upgrading a legacy system can be costly: new products and equipment, installation, licensing, and training staff to use the new system.
But not upgrading brings its own set of problems.
Cons of Legacy Systems
- Parts for legacy systems are expensive. According to the US Government Accountability Office, “Ten critical federal information technology (IT) legacy systems . . . ranged from about 8 to 51 years old and, collectively, cost about $337 million annually to operate and maintain” (source).
- Finding support is difficult. Finding specialists familiar with legacy systems can be challenging, not to mention costly.
- Legacy systems use more power than modern systems and, thus, have a bigger carbon footprint (source).
- Legacy equipment is slow. In fact, since 2013, supercomputers have increased in speed by 40% every year (source).
How to Modernize Legacy Systems
Moving away, or migrating, from a legacy system may not be as difficult as you think. There are two main paths: transformation and lift-and-shift.
Lift-and-shift moves your network’s software and data to a cloud or hybrid cloud service—with little-to-no redesign.
Transformation, or modernization, slowly and methodically brings your network software and hardware up to date with current technology.
How do you know which migration type is right for your business? Or if it’s even time to modernize your legacy system?
WYRE is here to help. Through our network auditing, penetration testing, and other services, we help you along the path to finding the most cost-effective, least disruptive decision for your company.