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Legacy Applications & software are slowing down the Nuclear Sector. How can the industry improve?

Author: Mike Douglass


 

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What are Legacy Applications?

A legacy application is a piece of software, method or infrastructure that is old and that has usually been superseded by a newer version.

Legacy applications are often kept in production longer than they should because they are carrying out an important task, the infrastructure is outdated so newer versions wont function or because it commercially isn’t viable to upgrade or re-write.

Legacy Applications within Nuclear & Engineering

With the complex job roles and working environments within the Nuclear sectors, legacy applications are very common. The risks are increased in this sector due to the increased work demands and increased security risks.

The Nuclear sector have many applications from software that runs intensive calculations, to project management applications like Primavera.

What are the risks & Problems associated with Legacy Applications or AGEING Infrastructure?

When Legacy applications are left in a live environment, this often means the infrastructure it runs from is also out of date.

This can cause issues as often patches and updates are not available after a certain point in time. This will mean businesses are at risk with:

  • Poor Performance

 

  • Cyber Security Threats

 

  • Key Reliance on the up-time of an unstable app / environment

 

  • Limited or Lack of Support

How can you overcome challenges caused by Legacy Applications?

If you are running a legacy application, or even a software application that is due an upgrade there are 2 main patches to consider:

  • Rewrite, Build or change the Application
  • Move the Application to a ‘Cloud Hosted’ Environment.

Option 1 can be expensive, and it can also mean a big impact within the company on down time, user training requirements and then even more upgraded infrastructure to support the new solution.

Option 2 allows a Legacy application, or any software application to be ‘picked up’ and hosted from a secure hosted platform. This means that application is ‘encapsulated’ and even if old technology, can be ran on and deployed over newer IT & operating systems.

x5 Benefits of Hosted Applications within a Secure Cloud Environment

 

  • Mobility – Rapid deployment of applications can support fast changes in teams, projects and objectives

 

  • Security – Moving your Application (and data if needed) to a hosted platform for deployment can improve the security as you will be able to leverage increased physical and platform security levels of a Data Centre.

 

  • Infrastructure – Ability to continue with operating system and infrastructure upgrades without the worry that it will stop the application(s) from functioning.

 

  • Management – Utilising Cloud App deployment gives you central control over user access, performance and licence management.

 

  • Joint Venture Challenges – Joint Ventures and frame works are often made up of 2 or more organisations that have their own IT, applications and data. Leveraging Hosted Applications and workspaces allows applications, data and licencing to be easily deployed across multi-company environments.

Let’s talk…

If you would like to discuss this blog post, legacy application challenges, cloud hosting or another area please feel free to get in touch or tweet @yellowbusteam

 

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