I’m going to let you in on a big secret.

You know that legacy software you’ve been stuck with for years even though you really want to upgrade? You’re eventually going to have to walk away from it. The only real question is how much money you want to pour into the old software before you pull the plug and start all over again.

That might sound harsh, but hear me out. There are a ton of businesses throwing good money after bad propping-up dated legacy systems that have vulnerable architecture that simply isn’t going to last. The good news is that your company doesn’t have to be one of them.

Let’s talk about how we got to this point, what’s coming, and how your business can be future-proofed with strategic IT investments in new technologies that solve long-standing problems.

Building on a Bad Foundation

Imagine a parent in a growing family that needs more space. As they begin exploring options for adding onto their house, they discover the foundation is cracked and seriously compromised.

At this point, they would probably halt plans for adding on or building a second floor until they can assess the damage. They would talk to engineers and contractors, quantify the scope of the problem, and come up with a plan for fixing the problem before investing any more money in the home. Otherwise, they’d risk losing all of their investment in a literal money pit.

Over the last several years, a great many companies have learned that they are in a similar predicament. They grew by leaps and bounds and scaled their systems as fast as they could to keep up. But over time, some real problems came into focus — systemic weaknesses that threaten to undermine the entire enterprise.

The companies that sold those solutions also recognized their weaknesses, and for the most part chose to deal with them through piece-meal, quick-fix patches, which is why you receive so many update and patch notifications these days.

The narrative these companies are pushing is that you can continue patching their software forever and everything will be just fine — even as you continue piling onto the same broken foundation with more and more compute and data.

This is an unrealistic approach that will end badly for many companies.

Persistent and Evolving Threats

A lot has changed since the first modern business software produced by companies like Apple, VisiCalc, and IBM hit the market in the 1970s and 1980s. There was an explosion of business software in the years that followed, and new companies developed specialized products to address virtually every business need. While these tools did many different things, they were quite similar in architecture and overall design.

Fast forward a few decades, and it is amazing how far these simple tools have come. Almost every business, in one form or another, is dependent on sophisticated tools such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, accounts payable software, customer relationship management (CRM) and sales platforms, and more.

What’s even more amazing is that the architecture — the foundations — of these programs really haven’t changed that much. And therein lies the problem.

You see, there was another, parallel innovation trend that went parabolic right alongside the growth of business software: malware. In the grand scheme of things, software and malware are like twins born just a few minutes apart — but one of them is an evil twin. Software came first and largely grew from a shared, monolithic architecture that malware was created to corrupt.

No matter how much effort software companies put into building fences around their networks and programs, they will never be able to get around the fact that malware has a strategic advantage over traditional architecture.

Complicating matters even further, malware continues to evolve in both complexity and plurality as it is developed and reproduced at scale by a wide range of bad actors ranging from lone wolf hackers to rogue nations with massive budgets and capabilities.

The architecture underlying legacy systems simply isn’t going to last, and it’s time for a fundamentally different approach.

Fresh Ideas Instead of Canned Solutions

The first step to securing your company’s future IT posture is to step away from prefab software solutions. I’m talking about most of the “customizable” SaaS platforms that you’re likely familiar with for ERP, CRM solutions, and numerous other enterprise applications. Most of these programs aren’t really customizable, they just appear that way.

Many of the leading ERP solutions, for example, can be scaled back to better address a company’s needs, but there are several problems with this approach. First, you pay for features your company doesn’t need or use. Second, these platforms will often basically force your company to adapt to them — workflows and systems have to change to accommodate the tool’s needs, which is the opposite of customized software if you think about it.

Most importantly, all those platforms were built using the same vulnerable architecture. From a security perspective, it doesn’t really matter which one you get because they will all be compromised eventually. So what’s the answer?

New solutions and new architecture created with malware in mind.

Start with an Expert Assessment

When the hypothetical homeowners mentioned earlier found out their home’s foundation was broken, the first thing they did was retain a professional to fully assess the damage.

Likewise, when you’re ready to future-proof your company’s core technology, you’ll want to bring in an unbiased expert with the skills and experience to assess your current systems and develop a modernization plan.

A reputable IT contractor should be able to provide you with a detailed assessment of where you are, a realistic map to get your technology stack where it needs to be, and a firm quote for how much it will cost. Additionally, legitimate contractors should have stable and mature development processes for all of their projects.

What Should the Development Process Look Like?

The first requirement is transparency — the process should be explained to you up front and have defined starting and ending points, as well as realistic milestones throughout.

While every contractor will have a slightly different development process, our model can serve as a great basis for comparison. The key elements in our process are:

Data, context, and usable intelligence: We work with each customer to build a deep understanding of their organization’s data, and then we convert their data into usable intelligence.
Analytics and insights: We develop a complete version of the story our customer’s data is attempting to tell, and we ensure it makes sense to them.
Wisdom: We help customers find the wisdom in the analytics and intelligence so they can make decisions and plan their actions moving forward.
Action and automation: We make well-informed decisions and act on them. Once we see the actions are working, we create efficiencies with automation.
Prediction: We look for opportunities to use predictive models, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and simulation models.
Constant and never-ending improvement: We employ our take on Toni Robbins’ classic model for continuous improvement. As technologies constantly advance and improve, we look for new ways to deliver better work faster.

It’s important to point out that while our process may seem straightforward, we’re only successful because we have the underlying experience and expertise that it takes to do it correctly and deliver projects on time and within budget. We deliver, and we have the track record to prove it.

Make sure any contractor you consider hiring has a solid performance record and glowing references to match.

Build on a Solid Foundation to Future-proof Your Business

As yourself, why do you have the tech stack that you have now?

For many organizations, there’s not a clear-cut answer to this question. It’s often the case that they thought they were getting one thing, ended up with something else, and have invested heavily to make it work and keep it up and running as their needs changed and cyber threats have exploded in both intensity and frequency.

After going through all of that, it can be hard to contemplate starting over again. And that is completely understandable. The thing is, businesses that are still clinging to their legacy systems will eventually have to walk away from them, as legacy platforms with flawed architecture are ultimately undermined and exposed.

It’s not if, it’s when — and how.

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