The Hidden Costs of Legacy Systems: Why Migrating Data Now Saves More Later

If you’re reading this blog, you likely already know the value of your company’s business data and how important it is for that data to be available and accessible to employees, partners, or customers. You may also be aware that keeping that data available and accessible is a full-time job that can span multiple organizations within your company. 

Businesses often delay data migration, assuming it will be disruptive or expensive, but the hidden costs of maintaining legacy systems may far outweigh the short-term savings. This post will explore the less obvious, long-term costs of sticking with legacy systems and how timely data migration can save businesses money, reduce risks, and unlock new growth opportunities.

First, let’s go over the definition of data migration. According to Wikipedia, data migration is the process of selecting, preparing, extracting, and transforming data and permanently transferring it from one computer storage system to another. For an enterprise, this process can take many months and even years if not planned deliberately. In a cloud data migration, IT leaders face data security risks, compliance demands, the possibility of data loss or corruption, and the costs of downtime – all while under pressure to maintain budgets. Small wonder, then, that many organizations postpone this important project. 

Yet when managed well, cloud data migrations offer many benefits. Let’s begin by exploring some of the reasons you might want to migrate your data off of a legacy system.

Why migrate data off of a legacy system?

While getting people to embrace new ways of working always introduces new challenges, the benefits of migrating off a legacy system typically far outweigh the cons. Some reasons to move away from a legacy system include:

Operational inefficiencies and downtime can hurt the bottom line

Older systems are often slower than modern ones and solving process or data issues can require manual workarounds, which increases labor costs and reduces productivity. Legacy systems can be more prone to crashes, security vulnerabilities, and performance issues, leading to frequent downtime, which impacts business continuity.

In fact, downtime from legacy systems affects Fortune 500 business productivity and costs to the tune of almost $1.5 Trillion dollars.

Maintenance costs can skyrocket

Over time, maintaining and troubleshooting legacy systems becomes more complex and expensive due to outdated technologies and a shrinking pool of specialists. In addition, software and hardware vendors may increase support fees for outdated systems, or stop offering support altogether, leaving businesses with unpatched systems vulnerable to risks.

Missed opportunities for innovation and growth

Legacy systems can limit an organization’s ability to innovate or adopt new technologies like  machine learning, advanced analytics, or AI. As competitors move to agile, cloud-based platforms, businesses relying on legacy systems may miss opportunities for automation, faster time-to-market, or improved customer experiences.

Data silos and poor integration increase uncertainty

Legacy systems often lead to data silos, making it difficult to use data across the organization and reducing the ability to gain actionable insights. Poor data integration from legacy systems prevents businesses from leveraging real-time data analytics, which can lead to slower or misinformed decisions.

Increased cybersecurity risks

Outdated data systems are more susceptible to security breaches, as they may lack modern encryption, patches, or monitoring features. The cost of recovering from a data breach can far outweigh the potential savings of a delayed or avoided migration to newer more secure systems.

Regulatory and compliance risks

Legacy systems often don’t comply with the latest industry regulations like GDPR and the CCPA, putting businesses at risk for penalties or lawsuits. Here too, the cost of a compliance failure both financially and reputationally, may far exceed the short term benefits of not migrating data to a system with modern capabilities for compliance monitoring and data tracking.

What are the benefits of migrating data to the cloud?

While data migration has upfront costs, long-term savings can be realized through reduced maintenance, improved productivity, better security, and the ability to leverage modern tools like AI and cloud infrastructure. There are many tools on the web from cloud vendors and consultants that will allow you to perform a cost-benefit analysis of data migration from on-prem to cloud services. There are also services available from major storage providers in which they will perform your data migration for a fixed cost and handle all of the potential issues that may arise during that process.

Some of the benefits of cloud migration include:

Improved operational efficiency and reduced downtime

Cloud-based platforms typically offer superior performance compared to legacy systems. By leveraging modern infrastructure, businesses can avoid the bottlenecks, manual workarounds, and frequent downtime that plague older systems. This boosts productivity and enhances business continuity.

Lower maintenance and operational costs

Switching to the cloud can drastically reduce expenses related to maintaining and upgrading hardware and software. Instead of managing physical servers or outdated software licenses, businesses can take advantage of cloud providers’ scalable services, which often include automatic updates and system optimizations.

Access to modern technologies and faster innovation

Cloud platforms are built to support the integration of advanced technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. This enables businesses to innovate faster, improve time-to-market, and enhance customer experiences, providing a significant competitive edge.

Enhanced data integration and decision-making

Cloud systems centralize data, breaking down silos and enabling seamless access to data across the organization. This improved integration allows businesses to make faster, more informed decisions based on real-time data analytics, improving overall business agility.

Stronger security and reduced risk

Cloud platforms come equipped with the latest security features, including encryption, continuous monitoring, and automatic patches. Migrating to the cloud significantly reduces the risk of security breaches, which can be costly both financially and reputationally.

Improved compliance and regulatory adherence

Cloud providers often offer built-in tools for tracking and managing data compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Businesses that migrate to the cloud are better equipped to meet regulatory demands and avoid penalties, ensuring data governance best practices are upheld.

Conclusion

The costs of maintaining legacy systems are often hidden but significant, from operational inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities to missed growth opportunities. In fact, these costs often far outweigh the potential short-term benefits of delaying a data migration to a newer system that is more secure, more available, and more open to integration with new reporting, analytics, and compliance technologies. And as legacy data systems get longer in the tooth, it becomes more and more challenging to actually migrate the data and transform it into something that is useful to the organization.

Hopefully, this blog has given you enough information to inform you about the perils of delaying a corporate data migration and provided a rationale to explore modern solutions that can help future-proof your data operations. It is important to think of data migration not as a burden, but as a strategic investment that can save costs and reduce risks in the long term.

Curious to learn how a data catalog can optimize your cloud migration? Book a demo with us today.