The Real Cost of a System You Are Planning to Decommission
· 2 min read
Most technology leaders know that legacy systems are expensive. What is less well understood is that a system you have already decided to decommission, but have not yet closed, is often the most expensive system in your estate.
It carries all the costs of an active system: licence fees, hosting, support overhead, the staff time spent keeping it stable. But it also carries the costs of its transitional state. The team responsible for it has mentally moved on. Patching cycles slip. Monitoring becomes inconsistent. The system sits in a state of managed neglect that concentrates both financial and operational risk.