Legacy Governance: The Alternative Offered by the Secondary Market

It's challenging for companies to constantly invest in the latest software versions. As a result, they accumulate technical debt and develop their future projects on a legacy comprised of obsolete yet still stable and efficient solutions, alongside more recent software components. In this context, the secondary market offers companies an interesting alternative to maintain a good balance between their various technological components. 

Legacy: What Heritage for Companies?

In the era of digital transformation, managing legacy and technical debt covers major competitiveness challenges for companies. Indeed, how can one promote agile processes without completely overhauling their information system, partially composed of mainframe or ASX solutions? According to Gartner's recommendations: by promoting a “bimodal IT” approach!

The Cost of Legacy Governance

The Second-hand Market: An Economic and Reliable Solution

However, “all or nothing” clauses in support contracts force companies to maintain these legacy bases at the same level as their more recent systems, even when publishers have stopped their support, deeming these products as “end of life.” Yet, many companies continue to use very old versions of databases... which remain very efficient. In 2019, 93% of IT managers still considered using their mainframe in the long term [2].

In this sense, despite pressure from publishers, companies have every interest in turning to the secondary market and the strong synergy it offers with all ecosystem players.

The first asset of the secondary market: the reliability of purchased licenses. Indeed, the marketplace acts as a true trusted third party and ensures in advance the quality of the solutions offered. Thus, companies can respond favorably to software compliance requirements.

Another advantage of the second-hand market: the choice of maintenance. It is either possible to reactivate the maintenance of the acquired second-hand solution (recommended in the case of more complex software) with the publisher or manage it directly internally (in the case of simpler business software, or for which updates and security patches are applied automatically).

But there is also the possibility to turn to new players: third-party maintainers, very responsive and high-quality, with very attractive rates. In the case of acquiring second-hand solutions, it will be necessary to consult them in advance to choose the most suitable offer and accurately calculate the TCO.

Legacy and the technical debt associated with it are therefore not a fatality. Among the alternatives considered, the second-hand market presents the best balance between quality, compliance, and competitiveness.

[1] According to a study by IDG (International Data Group) for the low-code development platform Appian, October 2018 – https://www.developpez.com/actu/228268/Etude-50-pourcent-des-projets-de-developpement-d-applications-se-soldent-par-un-echec-cela-est-il-du-a-la-lenteur-des-codeurs-et-la-dette-technique/

[2] According to a BMC study, 2019 – The Next Wave of Mainframe Success: Insights from the 2019 Survey.