legacy software
Old but operational
Legacy software is older computer programs or systems still in use despite being outdated or superseded by newer technology.
Organizations often maintain legacy software because replacing it would be costly or disruptive, even when it creates compatibility problems or security vulnerabilities: The bank still runs on legacy software from the 1990s.
The term carries slight pejorative weight—nobody calls their own current systems legacy.
- COBOLElderly business-oriented programming language
- punch cardData storage via perforations
- costlyHigh in price
- end-of-lifeNearing death phase
- migrationMovement to new territory
incompatibility · monolithic · maintenance · debugging · Y2K · technical debt · tech debt · outdated · mainframe · sunk cost · compliance · emulation · backward compatible · brittle · code smell · containerization · batch processing · hardcoded