Legacy IT has the merit of being well-proven and perfectly mastered. Yet legacy also has its limits, the main one being its ability to evolve. That's why it's important to estimate ROI and consider migration to the cloud.
Legacy seems ideal. This historical IT system "hums" along quietly, without too many hitches or bugs. Employees are used to it, and therefore have no difficulty in using it on a daily basis.
But that's without taking into account the expense involved in maintaining it. In 2014, this function occupied 36% of the time of IT departments, and 70% of IT budgets in 2017 (source: PAC).
Hence the desire expressed by companies to modernize their legacy. But this remains costly and complex. How, then, can we justify this expenditure at a time when companies are embarking on or reflecting on a more agile strategy to increase their market share? In a word, is legacy an important link in optimizing the customer and user experience?
There are signs that companies are recognizing that legacy is now a major threat, and are beginning to change course. The proof is that they are increasingly turning to the cloud and its various options.
It is therefore important to use different ROIs to validate whether or not legacy applications should be maintained.
Why devote such a large budget to legacy?
If a company spends 70-80% of its IT budget on running and maintaining existing systems, there's not much left over to seize new opportunities with innovative solutions.
Why not rely on the cloud?
All new technologies are based on the cloud, enabling developers to accelerate the pace of development while multiplying the number of tests without impacting the IS. The DevOps culture is reshuffling the deck and giving the legacy a "facelift". How can you gain in agility if the IT department or team spends its time tightening the bolts of legacyapplications?
Is legacy still innovative?
According to a recent Deloitte survey, technological relevance is a key factor driving the need to upgrade or replace legacy technologies. "Legacy lacks flexibility; it has a significant technological debt due to obsolete languages, databases and architectures".
According to Deloitte analysts, this debt is preventing many organizations from "moving forward and supporting analytics, real-time transactions and the digital experience".
But which method to choose? Many companies choose to "rip and replace" existing systems with a new one, starting from scratch.
But according to a Deloitte report ("Starting your modernization journey
Update legacy systems with fully automated migration"), the most effective option for modernizing traditional IT is "fully automated migration to convert code and data to modern platforms. It also enables organizations to gradually tackle digital modernization without interrupting their business activities".
Do legacy profiles last forever?
Sooner or later, companies will be faced with the problem of how to maintain their legacy applications. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find people who master existing technologies. And how can you attract young talent if your technological environment is outdated?
Is legacy compatible with the customer experience?
Customers expect a satisfying, even personalized and fast digital experience. How can legacy meet this challenge, when more innovative, cloud-based solutions are enabling business units to react more effectively?
Gone are the days of quarterly releases and 18-24 month projects. Speed is a real competitive differentiator. And in a very delicate period - disrupted by the coronavirus epidemic - only those organizations capable of adapting quickly will come out on top. Of course, this is not the only criterion, but it will be decisive.
Isn't legacy a weak link?
The security of cloud solutions still requires precautions, a better understanding of the division of responsibilities between providers and customers (companies), and the implementation of an appropriate security policy.
But it's clear that older technologies are harder to control, monitor and secure as security paradigms and solutions evolve.
In the end, legacy applications are increasingly seen as obstacles to digital transformation. Not all of them are compatible with the cloud. But by focusing on the difficulties that any change will bring, opting for the status quo is not the right solution.
Now, more than ever, we need to think about a migration strategy.
