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Modernization software cuts legacy IT pains

Vancouver-based company Make Technologies Inc. released new software this week to help enterprises with legacy technology modernize their IT infrastructure to help reduce costs.
 

Legacy software is hard to maintain and upgrade because it is so old that often there are few people who have the skills to modify and maintain it, according to Bill Bergen, the president and CEO of Make Technologies. Using the Make Technologies Enterprise Suite, which allows for enterprises to retire legacy software and hardware, should lead to a significant reduction in maintenance costs, Bergen said.

“Most of IT budgets are spent on legacy systems,” Bergen said.

Using the Enterprise Suite, businesses can reduce costs due to a shortage of skills needed to upgrade legacy software, said Bergen.

Generally, legacy software and hardware exists in older more established enterprises like life insurance firms, said Randy Hearn, an analyst at London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group Ltd. Legacy software is critical to a business, so when it’s going to translate its older to newer code, the business has to make sure there is someone monitoring it to avoid mistranslations given possible imperfections in the software, Hearn advises.
 

Legacy technology is also a problem for organizations because new software and hardware is often incompatible with it, so it is better to upgrade it, said Bergen. The Enterprise Suite works by reducing custom code in legacy portfolios by reducing the amount of custom code without affecting workflows or how a business is run.

Hearn said companies want to update their legacy software, but often do not have the time to do so or the necessary process.

“Modernizing any system is going to see benefits,” Hearn said. “There is definitely a need for companies like (Make Technologies) to speed up the process.”

There are dozens of technology vendors who offer software to remove legacy technology besides Make Technologies, such as Hewlett-Packard Co. headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., and IBM Canada Ltd., headquartered in Markham, Ont.

“(The Make Technologies Enterprise Suite) is nothing spectacular compared to anything else,” Hearn noted.

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