Legacy system decommissioning is one of the most critical methods to safely and effectively retire your outdated systems. However, organisations often neglect this process, thinking that it's not that important for IT infrastructure management. This is because it's not as exciting as other projects in the business. Yet, in today's cyber warfare situation, this is possibly the most expensive mistake business leaders make. In this article, let's explore why this topic is crucial in today's day and age. Read on for more valuable insights.
Introduction
Security is one of the most important priorities for organisations. If companies are not properly maintaining their legacy systems, they might face security threats from hackers or cyberattackers. Sometimes, a company can become a target for threats like ransomware due to their legacy systems. This situation is particularly crucial for organisations to understand, as many organisations that use SAP systems are moving towards their path to SAP S/4HANA migration. During this journey, some companies may opt for "doing nothing" for their old system. However, aside from the security risks, there are many other practical reasons businesses must consider retiring their obsolete systems, with the key SAP legacy decommissioning strategies. In this article, let's look at some of those critical reasons one by one. Keep on reading.
The SAP ECC support deadline is knocking on the door
For companies migrating to SAP S/4HANA, SAP will end support for their previous systems by 2027. Hence, the end of maintenance of SAP legacy systems and the lack of updating and patching have become a security concern for organisations.
This actually leaves the SAP ECC customers in a tricky position. SAP might extend the maintenance dates. However, even for that to happen, companies will have to wait as long as possible. That's why it's critical to come up with a strategic plan to handle legacy systems and historical data in the most cost-effective way possible.
Avoiding data breaches in your organisation
Without a proper legacy system decommissioning process in place, your old systems are running indefinitely, which makes your IT infrastructure vulnerable to multiple security risks. Obsolete systems are more prone to data breaches because they may not receive updates and patches from vendors. Even if a vendor is still providing maintenance updates, organisations fail to implement them. This is because they don't have the right professional in the company, or maybe all their resources are busy catering to the new systems. Failing to maintain outdated systems properly can leave your data highly exposed to cyber threats, and it is one of the most favoured ways for attackers to breach a company firewall. In fact, according to a recent survey, one of the most popular ways for hackers to gain access is through security gaps in legacy systems.
Meeting regulatory requirements
Apart from the security implications, there are compliance concerns when legacy systems are left unchecked. Not following SAP legacy system decommissioning strategies and keeping outdated systems running can lead to non-compliance with evolving regulatory standards such as GDPR. This can further lead to receiving penalties of millions and legal challenges from regulators.
Increasing maintenance costs
Let's consider the cost aspect, because without talking about this element, the topic of exploring the repercussions of not decommissioning outdated systems would be incomplete. Usually, outdated systems are difficult to maintain and complicated to integrate with newer systems. Apart from this, organisations have to hire skilled professionals to support such systems, which are difficult to find. These aspects put more burden on businesses' financial budgeting, increasing maintenance costs.
Allows better utilisation of IT skillsets
It is a daunting task to find the right people with relevant skills and expertise; this becomes more difficult when their skillsets are more specialised. Many legacy systems are completely dependent on the limited number of professionals who actually understand and know how to maintain these systems, which makes it difficult to maintain them when such people are unavailable. This is where legacy system decommissioning helps organisations by successfully shutting down old systems and reallocating valuable resources towards more strategic projects that will allow them to contribute to growth and scalability.
Sustainability considerations
The other critical factor to consider is the environmental cost of powering obsolete systems. It is quite understandable that data centres have become one of the biggest consumers of energy, and as the volume of data keeps rising, so do power consumption levels. Keeping and maintaining legacy systems instead of decommissioning them wastes a great deal of energy. That's why retiring such systems becomes the need of the hour to reduce your carbon footprint and contribute more to your sustainability goals.
The most go-to strategy for legacy system decommissioning
You have explored the importance of system decommissioning, but the critical question to ask here is what steps can IT professionals take to ensure the safe retirement of legacy systems? And another, perhaps more important question than the previous one is, what if you need that legacy data again? Well, one of the best SAP legacy systems decommissioning strategies to pick here is to reach out to an expert who can provide you with a legacy system application solution. With this solution, organisations can easily extract historical data from obsolete systems and preserve it for long-term storage. Moreover, once the data is preserved, companies can easily access it with the help of a legacy system application solution, which further enhances and improves their cybersecurity efforts.
Conclusion
Investing in the decommissioning process is an important strategic activity for organisations of all sizes. It allows you to mitigate security and compliance risks, reduce the cost associated with maintenance, and reduce the carbon footprint. Thankfully, there are many cutting-edge technologies and consultants available in the market to tackle such problems. Consider the advantages of legacy system decommissioning and talk to an expert professional today
