Monday | 8 September, 2008
CIO
Managing the Legacy Portfolio
High-value, high-risk systems present the CIO and the business with special problems. High value makes migration a difficult decision. High risk makes it imperative
Andrew Rowsell-Jones 14 June, 2007 11:00:00

Related Features
  • +

    Process Trip 04 February, 2008 13:07:03

    Why Maritz Travel revamped key business processes — and how business and IT came together to make it work
    When Rich Phillips became COO OF Maritz Travel about two and-a-half years ago, he sat down and took a hard look at the big industry picture
  • +

    Ticked Off at Tick the Box Mentality 04 February, 2008 13:01:15

    Does your executive search firm know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?
    Does your executive search firm know its MIS managers from its elbow? Does it even know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?
  • +

    How to Get Real About Strategic Planning 04 February, 2008 12:50:59

    Everyone agrees that having a strategic plan for IT is a good thing but most CIOs approach the process with fear and loathing. In fact, the majority of CIOs (and the enterprises they work for) are faking it when it comes to strategic planning. Isn't it time we all got real?
    Oh, it must be nice to be the CIO of a FedEx or a GE or a Credit Suisse. Places where IT and the business are so tightly aligned you can barely tell the two apart. Where corporate leaders understand that IT is a strategic asset and support it as such
  • +

    Strategies for Dealing With IT Complexity 24 December, 2007 10:30:47

    Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business.
    Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business.
  • +

    9 Paths to Higher Performance 10 December, 2007 14:09:23

    When an organization brings together talented people in a creative, collaborative environment it fosters a culture of high performance, which in turn leads to superior business results
    Like high-achieving individuals, some organizations seem to have the Midas touch. Virtually every initiative they touch earns them gold and even those that fail never seem to cost them much of anything at all
Related Stories
  • +

    Adobe launches hosted services, adds Flash to Acrobat 03 June, 2008 09:02:44

    Adobe to launch Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storage
    Adobe this week is set to unveil the next version of its Adobe Acrobat software, which adds support for the company's Flash multimedia technology. The company also plans to launch a new Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storage.
  • +

    Can Macs conquer the enterprise? 11 January, 2008 10:55:53

    The field is wide open for a Macintosh insurrection on the business desktop. It could happen, but probably won't. Here's why.
    If Apple were a football team, the New England Patriots would have had some serious competition this year.
Additional Resources
Executive Guides
Whitepapers

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up for our CIO newsletters!
Weekly coverage of the issues that impact corporate and government information
RSS Feeds

As one of the contributors to recent Gartner EXP research into legacy assets observed: "A legacy system is a hindrance that fills a business need — so you can't just get rid of it."

The sad truth is that most of today's applications will end up as tomorrow's legacy systems. And in some industries that have been using enterprise computing for a long time — such as life insurance and banking — legacy systems can represent the vast majority of IT's financial worth.

The good news is that not all legacy systems are equal in terms of the difficult choices they represent to the business. Systems with low risk and low value can easily be tolerated, or eliminated when they can't. High-risk, low-value systems too can easily be eliminated. Low-risk, high-value systems are what every CIO and business executive wants in the application portfolio.

If migration from a high-value, high-risk legacy system is intended to get the business "out of a hole", then a key goal for CIOs is to avoid digging a new hole

But none of those simple choices is appropriate for high-value, high-risk systems. As the saying goes, the business can't live with them and it can't live without them. They must be significantly upgraded or migrated, with either approach involving major investment and change for both IS and the business.

Because the stakes are high, and the choices are neither easy nor simple, the CIO's legacy strategy must focus on high-value, high-risk systems. The strategy has two parts. The first focuses on whether, when and how to migrate. The second focuses on preventing new high-value, high-risk systems from being created again.

Market Place
 

2008 CIO Summit

19th August, 2008 Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney Developed in partnership with CIO Magazine, IDC, INTEP and the CIO Executive Council.

The world of the CIO is extremely complex and diverse. Multiple priorities demand attention and decisions are needed instantly. Individual teams need to be driven towards common goals, and businesses strive to become more mobile, agile and responsive. For CIOs, the challenge never ends.

Every year the CIO Summit identifies what is top of mind for CIOs across Australia and New Zealand, and offers insight for CIO benchmarking and vendor strategic planning alike.

Recent IDC research shows that over 59% of CIO's believe that 'to achieve their business strategies, technology should be used more aggressively than today.'

Join us on August 19th to discover how this is possible with the latest technologies including Virtualisation, Web 2.0, IP Surveillance and Software as a Service (Saas).

Click here for registration.

Click here for more information.

Please email Denyse_Robertson@idg.com.au for further information.

  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00

    For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25

    For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00

    Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00

    Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05

    Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
  • +

    Information security governance: Centralized vs. distributed 05 September, 2008 10:15:00

    Should security policies, procedures and processes be managed within a central body, or distributed at an individual level? You need to find the middle ground.
    The management of information risk has become a significant topic for all organizations, small and large alike. But for the large, multi-divisional organization, it poses the additional challenge of determining how to deploy an information security governance program among what are often disparate business units. Should the policies, procedures, and processes that define the program be developed and managed within a central, corporate body? Or perhaps responsibility would be better placed at the individual unit level? Is there a workable middle-ground?
  • +

    DNS error brings Sophos antivirus updates to a halt 05 September, 2008 13:40:00

    Optus, Internode and Equinix affected among others.
    A sporadic Domain Name Server (DNS) error has blocked Sophos anti-virus updates around the world.
  • +

    Ouch! Security pros' worst mistakes 04 September, 2008 08:05:00

    We've all done regrettable things on the job, but does any valuable wisdom come of it? Four security pros candidly explain their biggest blunders and what they learned in the process
    It was a mistake so bad the person who made it asked that his name and company not be mentioned here. Let's call him Frank.
  • +

    Security ROI: Fact or Fiction? 03 September, 2008 08:32:00

    Bruce Schneier says ROI is a big deal in business, but it's a misnomer in security. Make sure your financial calculations are based on good data and sound methodologies.
    Return on investment, or ROI, is a big deal in business. Any business venture needs to demonstrate a positive return on investment, and a good one at that, in order to be viable.
  • +

    Information Security and the Importance of Context 01 September, 2008 10:00:00

    Those entrusted with information security must raise their contextual awareness
    When the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was first created, it created a sudden need for tens of thousands of screeners. Getting a job as an airport screener was a pretty easy process. It seemed as though if you had a pulse, you were in. Jump forward to 2008 and becoming a screener is a bit harder as the TSA has instituted background checks, has upped the educational requirement to include a high school diploma or GED, and added other significant requirements.
CIO Webcast Innovation #8 - What are the biggest roadblocks to IT's involvement in innovation at your company?
Watch the latest latest edition of CIO Innovation which is now available for download.
Watch the webcast
Sign up to the CIO Innovation update email


CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II
Listen to the latest edition of CIO Live which is now available for download.
Listen to the podcast
Sign up to the CIO Live email
Whitepaper

Growth Strategies in Uncertain Times: Building & Maintaining Good Client Relationships in Professional Services Organisations

To stand out and build your business, there are certain key attributes you must build across your firm. Learn how to grow your business and to think strategically about building and deepening core client relationships by reading on.

Sponsored Links