Legacy systems have their shortcomings. Not only is a legacy system difficult to maintain, cost more in the long run but it can also pose a security threat to your business.
Bobby Ford, Global CISO at Unilever said in his interview to ComputerWeekly, “Legacy IT systems are often at the heart of cyber breach incidents and because decommissioning is not usually an option, information security professionals need to manage the risk by working closely with key business stakeholders to identify all critical systems and the systems that support them.”
The pace at which technology is evolving has forced businesses to make rapid changes to their infrastructure. Businesses that stay one step ahead of the curve and use the best-dedicated server hosting are the ones who are successful while businesses that are still hanging on to their legacy systems are lagging far behind in the race. If your business belongs to the latter group and you have legacy systems lying around that you want to get rid of, then you are at the right place.
In this article, you will learn about seven things you need to take into account before ditching your legacy systems.
When to Ditch Legacy Systems?
The first question you need to ask yourself is when is the right time to phase out a legacy system? To answer this question, you need to look at some of the signs that tell you that your legacy system is outdated. Here are some of the signs you need to keep an eye on.
- No software support
- Frequent hardware failure
- Failure to meet compliance requirement
- Poor security
- Not aligning with the current business model
If your legacy systems are showing the aforementioned signs, it is time to replace them. The next question you need to ask yourself is how you would replace the legacy systems? For that, you need a strategy and plan that will make the transition smoother. Set a clear goal and highlight why you want to migrate to modern systems. It will give you a clear direction to move in and your migration project is less likely to go off track.
Create a Data Migration Plan
Data is one of the most valuable assets for businesses. Unfortunately, few businesses realize the real worth of that data. As a result, they rarely take any steps to safeguard their data, which makes the job of cybercriminals a whole lot easier. What if your sensitive business data is stored on a legacy system?
Yes, you can leave it stored in legacy systems especially, if you have developers who can keep it updated and patched otherwise, you are better off migrating your data to a new system. For that, you need to create a data migration plan.
Here is a step by step process of creating a data migration plan:
- Identify the data format, storage location and sensitivity
- Resolve an issue with data
- Create a scope of the project
- Assess resource requirements
- Maintain data quality and integrity
- Execute data migration plan
- Backup Your Data
Data migration is a complicated process and it can go wrong most often than not. Irrespective of how good you are at handling data migration; you might mess up. To ensure you do not end up losing your sensitive business data in the process, it is important to take a backup of all your data before executing the migration process. It is better to keep data on legacy systems in read-only mode, especially if it does not increase the cost, conflicts with the compliance requirements.
Legacy System Security
Security is one of the biggest problems with legacy systems. The older a system gets, the less likely it is to get software support and patches and more likely it is to experience a hardware failure. This means that there are more vulnerabilities and loopholes in the system, which can easily be exploited by cybercriminals to fulfill their malicious designs. Businesses should invest in endpoint security solutions and reduce their reliance on antivirus programs as they are no longer as effective as they once were, especially with hackers using sophisticated techniques to bypass security systems.
Choose Components to Transfer
There are instances when you do not need to migrate your entire legacy system but only a few components. If that is the case, you should approach it slowly. By choosing the right components to transfer, it gives employees more time to adjust and acclimatize themselves to the new system hence, making the transition smoother. Similarly, it also provides much-needed breathing space to IT and security teams to make sure everything is working according to the plan as they only must secure one or a few components at a time instead of the entire system.
Roll Back Facility
As mentioned before, migrating your data and application from legacy systems to modern systems is not easy. There are instances when you might need to roll back the transfer mid-way through the process. This process can be even more cumbersome especially if you are transferring your entire legacy system to a modern system as compared to moving one component. That is where the rollback option and data backup can save your day. Avoid transferring systems that are critical to business operations as they can hamper your day-to-day operations.
Updates and Patches
Getting rid of legacy systems is not easy as they never seem to go away even after you have replaced them. Some of your data and applications might still be there and some employees might want to access that data and information. The problem is that these legacy systems are not patched and upgraded to the latest software versions which put your entire organization’s network protection at a greater risk. The best way to solve this problem is to create a new network segment or connect these legacy systems to a separate network so even if these systems are compromised it won’t affect your business.
How do you manage migration from legacy systems to the latest systems? Let us know in the comments section below.