I think there are (at least) two distinct scenarios for running old
software:
1) infrastructure: the difficulty of transitioning from old to new. This
includes the dollar cost of the new software (and hardware) and the huge
amount of staff time needed: both immediately obvious (the actual
transition/migration) and the not-so-obviouscosts and time necessary to
really understand and deal with all the dependencies, both technological
and business-process. It is very hard to know all the ways that people
are using the features (and oddities) of any major software
infrastructure. And getting people to change how they work is really
hard, especially when they don't see any advantage or benefit.
2) applications: some people don't like change, so they resist moving to
new versions or replacements for anything. Others have a legitimate need
(or legitimate perceived need) to be able to deal with documents and
other data from the old applications. It took us many many years to
finally get rid of really really old drawing programs that faculty were
either using, or thought that they might need to update the images that
they use in their teaching.
--david
On 03/23/15 15:10, Esther Schindler wrote:
I recently listened to an IT manager talk about how many Novell
Netware servers the organization still used. I could hear the pain in
his voice.
I’m planning to write a blog post about the old software that IT folks
and developers have to support. I’m thinking it might be entertaining…
in a schadenfreude way. And perhaps the “why” answers can give us all
insight into what makes organizations hold onto legacy applications,
for good or ill.
I’m not looking for answers about custom applications or in-house
software. The reasons to hold onto old custom code are relatively
well-known, and a different discussion. But software you acquired from
a vendor…?
But… what’s the oldest software your shop still uses? Why is it still
in place?
Send me a note privately if you like, but I'm not planning to quote
anyone by name. It does help to have a context (e.g. "says a sysadmin
at a midwest insurance company") but it’s the experience that matters,
not the company or source’s name.
--Esther
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David Parter
Director of Academic Computing Services
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department
dpar...@cs.wisc.edu
608-262-0608
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