Why Is It Worth Migrating Data from Legacy Systems to a Separate Archiving Solution?
- Oskari Lehtonen
- Mar 11
- 3 min read
In many organizations, legacy systems that have reached the end of their lifecycle are still in use. These systems are no longer being developed, and maintaining them incurs ongoing costs year after year. Nevertheless, the data they contain is often valuable and essential for business operations, reporting, or meeting statutory obligations.
So how can information be preserved securely and made accessible without having to keep the entire legacy system running in parallel?
One of the most effective solutions is to migrate the data to a separate archiving solution designed specifically for this purpose. This is a strategic choice that frees the organization from outdated technology while simultaneously delivering improvements in cost efficiency, security, and usability.
Keeping legacy systems operational causes a range of practical challenges:
High costs: licenses, aging infrastructure, and diminishing in-house expertise.
Information security risks: outdated versions lead to vulnerabilities that are no longer patched.
Declining usability: accessing data becomes difficult or slow.
Delayed S/4HANA or cloud migrations: legacy systems hinder the modernization of the IT environment.
Why Should Data Be Migrated to a Separate Archiving Solution?
Migrating data from legacy systems to a modern archive is not merely a technical exercise, but part of the strategic management of an organization’s information assets. A separate archive decouples data from outdated technology and ensures it is preserved in a secure, well‑governed, and usable form for years to come. Migrating data to a dedicated archiving solution offers clear benefits, including:
1. Simplifying the IT Environment and Reducing Costs
When a legacy system can be decommissioned, the associated licenses, servers, support services, and maintenance responsibilities can also be eliminated. This allows the organization to focus on systems that are actively in use and on ongoing development initiatives.
2. Improved Risk Management
A modern archiving solution preserves data in an immutable and auditable form. It helps meet statutory requirements related to retention periods for accounting records, contract information, or personal data, for example. Information security is strengthened when outdated and vulnerable systems can be taken out of service.
3. Easier Access to Information
Data is moved to browser-based views that users can access without the original application. Search functions, metadata, and a clear user interface make historical information easy to find and utilize.
OpenText Information Archive – a Reliable Solution for Managing Legacy Data
The OpenText Information Archive solution offered by Edita Prima is designed for the long-term preservation of data from legacy systems. It enables the decommissioning of outdated systems while still ensuring data availability, integrity, and regulatory compliance. With this solution, data is decoupled from the original application and stored in a centralized archive in a structured format.
Key benefits include:
System decommissioning: Legacy systems can be retired in a controlled manner, reducing licensing, infrastructure, and maintenance costs.
Long-term retention: Data is preserved in an immutable and auditable form, supporting statutory retention requirements, among others.
Easy access to information: Users can search for and view data through browser-based interfaces without the original system.
Integration with SAP environments: Especially for SAP customers, Information Archive supports S/4HANA migrations and the archiving of data from legacy systems such as SAP ECC.
Migrating legacy data to Information Archive is not merely a technical project, but part of a broader information management strategy. It helps simplify the IT environment, reduce risks, and ensure that historical data remains available when needed—without the burden of legacy systems.
Comments