Legacy systems are consuming too much of theIT skills and support resourcesof
businesses, according to two-thirds of IT executives.
According to research carried out by software supplier Macro 4of
119IT executives, 69% said they wanted to reallocate skills and
support resources that are currently dedicated to legacy
systems.
But IT directors are
holding back from replacing legacy systems because of fears
related to the cost and complexity of doing so.
This admission comes despite a realisation that these systems,
often over 30 years old, are using up resources such as power,
skills and space that could be better used.
Over 42% admitted to keeping older applications alive just to
retain access to historical data and 87% agreed that this ties up
resources that could be redeployed elsewhere.
"Older applications can be a real support headache because they
require different skill sets and tend to be harder to pick apart
when things go wrong. And in many cases companies are incurring
extra overheads because they need to keep old hardware and software
solely for a legacy application to run on," said Jeremy Harpham,
document management systems product manager at Macro 4.
Most IT executives (91%) are worried about retiring legacy
systems because of cost and complexities, said the survey
report.
The banking sector is a good example of an industry being held
back by legacy systems. Banks use legacy applications that date
back as much as 40 years.
These systems are business critical 24 hours a day and retiring
them is a major obstacle.
According to research from Spectrum Consulting back in June most
banks will still use the same legacy systems for at least another
five years despite the fact that they increase costs and
decrease flexibility. The survey found that 76% of banking
professionals believe legacy IT systems, used to process banking
products for up to 40 years, will still be used in 2013.
Rajeena Brar, consultant at Pierre Audoin Consultants, said
banks have started getting rid of legacy systems but they do
not want to risk doing this in one go. "They see this as too
risky."
She added that the
current slowdown in the financial services market will slow
this down in some areas. "Where the banks have found weaknesses
which exposed them to the credit crunch, such as risk management we
will see investment in IT systems."