Legacy

Legacy is quite a common word and used in simple English a lot. It has many meanings attached to it depending upon the context it is used in. However, all those meanings are quite irrelevant and useless when we talk about this term with regards to the computer or networking world. In the networking world the term has an entirely different meaning attached to it. This articles deals with the meaning of this term and its use with respect to the networking world.
Legacy or legacy system is the term used to describe outdated or obsolete technology, computer application, software, method, computer system and equipment that is still being used by an individual or organization even when it is not coming in the market anymore.

With the passage of time new things, equipment and technology continues to come to the market and after a while the old technology is no more used as the newer technology is much faster and efficient than the older one, hence, that old technology becomes obsolete. Still many organizations or individuals keep on using that old technology or more formerly due to several reasons which are discussed in the following material.

The first reason that the organization or a person still uses the legacy system is that the system works just fine and gives satisfactory performance for the owner, and he sees no reason for changing it. The second reason is that the new technology is often very expensive and not many organizations are rich enough to keep fully up to date with the new technology that hits the market. The third reason is that the new system or the equipment that comes to the market is often complex and trained people are needed to operate it. The fourth reason is that the user expects that the legacy system can easily be replaced with the newer one easily when the change becomes necessary so before that time he won’t change over to the new technology.