Is Your Legacy Technology Undermining Your Cybersecurity?

The past two years have been rife with changes and, with that, digital transformation. Countless Ohio businesses like yours found themselves pivoting to adapt, embrace new technology, and discover business opportunities within the COVID-19 pandemic. Even with the rapid moves to newer systems, many organizations still hold onto outdated legacy technology. This hinders innovation and leaves your business more vulnerable to cybersecurity issues.

Legacy Systems and IT Modernization: What You Need to Know

Legacy technology refers to outdated systems that remain crucial for day-to-day operations. Updating from a legacy application is often a major challenge for organizations. New systems need compatibility with existing formats and processes and can create a bottleneck for businesses. These factors can push an organization to hold off on modernization and, consequently, open up your business to security risks.

Just like with your personal phone and computer’s operating system updates, your business needs technology updates as well. After all, technology changes at record speed and, with changing systems and shifts, new cybersecurity risks are uncovered. What was safe five years ago may leave you wide open to a costly data breach in today’s market. However, that’s not the only reason Ohio businesses like yours are working to move away from old systems. There are a number of benefits to updating to newer technology, which we unpack below.

1. Better Compliance and Support

On a related note, modernization can keep your business compliant with current regulations and make you more competitive in your industry. New technological solutions offer real-time data entry, improved encryption, and clear tracking that meets the expectations of your end users. This means better support for your clients and an opportunity to take a bigger piece of the market share.

2. More Flexibility and Efficiency

Legacy tech often leaves much to be desired in automation, flexibility, and efficiency. After all, newer technology systems can improve workflow for many of your employees. Plus, it frees up your information technology team from many of the bug fixes, maintenance, and manual integrations associated with outdated systems.

Do you know how much time your IT professionals spend managing legacy software? For the federal government, ten legacy systems cost a whopping $337 million per year. While your Ohio-based business likely doesn’t rack up such a hefty bill, legacy maintenance costs are probably cutting into your bottom line.

3. Cost Reduction

In addition to cutting down the cost of your employee’s maintenance, transitioning your business processes to newer technologies often frees up operational costs as well. For example, switching to a cloud-based solution can save you the data center costs of your old systems and offer more scalability.

Plus, modernized software relies on third-party APIs for cost functionality, including support for most programming languages. By modernizing, you can save yourself the legwork associated with trying to optimize your legacy tech with custom code.

Challenges with IT Modernization

If modernization offers fixes for security vulnerabilities, lower operating costs, and more opportunities, why doesn’t everyone do it? Time and cost are the two biggest hindrances to updating old systems. Of course, you can’t reinvent technology you’ve used for 15 years in a week. But, understanding your business processes and goals can help you determine a path forward to modernizing your legacy tech.

Failure to update your legacy software can come at a high cost. Instead, start finding new systems that work for your organization. If your Cleveland, Akron, or Columbus business is ready to improve your cybersecurity and open up a new world of business opportunities, consider reaching out to Warwick Communications. Get in touch today to start working on a custom solution that fits your needs.