SIDEBAR: Living with Your Legacy System

LEGACY SYSTEMS can be like ticking time bombs. Even if a business case can be made to replace them, doing so takes time. If you have to live with a legacy system for a period of time before replacing it, you should take these steps to protect your business:

1. Conduct performance tests and capacity planning at least once a year.

2. Test critical applications thoroughly, especially buffer overflows that can lead to application failure.

3. Develop workable backup plans to deal with catastrophic legacy system failures.

4. If you find that the legacy system has so much value to the business that replacement is not an option, create a business case plan for legacy system modernization, whereby you reduce the risk associated with it.

   SIDEBAR:Your Legacy System May Be Too Big a Risk to Tolerate When . . .

   Although the legacy system that failed Comair was 18 years old, age by itself is not an indicator that a legacy system should be replaced, says Robert Charette, director of the Cutter Consortium's enterprise risk management and governance practice. There are other, more relevant facts - in addition to its maturity - that may make your legacy system intolerably risky, such as:

   1. You no longer have anyone on staff who understands the language that it's written in.

   2. You can't locate the source code or documentation, and the only person who understands the design retired years ago.

   3. There is no one around who can fix the application on short notice.

   4. Backup systems haven't been tested for years, or they're manual and too hard to implement even if you wanted to.

   5. The original vendor went out of business.

   6. You're not sure how many more transactions the application is handling than it did when you last upgraded it.

   7. You discover there are other applications wired into the system that you weren't aware of.

   8. Your company is still highly dependent on the system for everyday operations.

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