Decommissioning legacy systems - reducing risks, costs & unlocking the value of long-term archival content
Many organizations still store long-term data (7+ years to decades) in legacy systems. These environments were never designed for preservation and now pose growing operational, financial, and compliance risks as they undermine data integrity, accessibility, and trust.
Maintaining aging systems storing long-term data adds unnecessary cost in infrastructure, storage licensing, and administrative overhead to access archived files.
We know why these systems remain in use and hold so much long-term data. Customizations, sunk costs, operational dependencies, and the risk of data loss are just some of the common reasons system decommissioning projects are repeatedly deprioritized.
Yet system decommissioning projects present an opportunity to not just save money but to also create a sustainable, compliant information management strategy for all the organization's legacy and future long-term content.
Why it matters: Legacy systems & the key risks facing long-term information
- Data loss & corruption - Legacy hardware fails, file formats become obsolete, and unsupported systems degrade. There is the ever-present risk of accidental deletion, tampering, version drift, and corruption during upgrades or migrations.
- Inaccessible & siloed ‘dark archives’ - Critical records often sit in isolated systems few can access, slowing legal response, hindering decisions, and creating reliance on IT or institutional knowledge.
- Compliance exposure - Retention demands integrity and auditability, but legacy systems allow uncontrolled changes and unclear custody, making compliance inconsistent.
- High, hidden costs - Maintaining aging systems or storing archives in operational platforms drives unnecessary spend on hardware, storage, licenses, and support.
A strategic path forward: aggregate & preserve
Having completed the content review and classification phase of any decommissioning project, a much clearer picture emerges of the data that needs to be migrated (records with short or long-term retention), and the ROT (redundant, obsolete and trivial) that can be defensibly deleted.
But long-term data is unique. Storing and protecting it requires more than traditional archiving. How do you avoid data loss, and how do you ensure files are usable once migrated to a new system and long into the future?
The answer lies in aggregating files into a single, purpose-built Digital Preservation archive that ensures long-term data remain readable, trustworthy, and accessible.
A Digital Preservation archive provides:
- Guaranteed data integrity through automated fixity checks
- Long-term readability with automated format migration
- Migration of obsolete file formats to the latest readable versions (previously unreadable records in legacy systems can be brought back to life and their value unlocked).
- Standardized metadata for rapid discovery
- Immutable, auditable records for regulatory confidence
- Centralized governance across all historic content
Enterprise value for IT leaders
For IT leaders, decommissioning legacy systems is no longer a maintenance task, it’s a strategic lever. Consolidating long-term records into a Digital Preservation archive strengthens the organization’s risk posture, streamlines the technology estate, and frees IT from the hidden drag caused by outdated systems. The result is a more secure, modern, and cost-efficient information landscape that supports both current operations and future digital initiatives.
- Reduce Risk - Ensure long-term records remain intact, readable, and tamper-proof, independent of aging systems, user error, or unpredictable software upgrades.
- Cut Cost - Eliminate spend on legacy infrastructure, licenses, and support while reducing storage pressure on operational platforms.
- Increase Data Value - Turn siloed archives into a unified, searchable asset that supports analytics, AI, and enterprise-wide decision-making.
- Accelerate Transformation - By removing legacy constraints, IT gains the flexibility to modernize applications, move to cloud-first architectures, and deliver new digital capabilities faster.
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