Chapter 1
Definition, Issues, and Strategy
What is Legacy?
For most people, in most situations, being passed a legacy is a good thing. Perhaps their long-lost uncle has left them a stately home filled with antiques. Or a legacy might be a valuable art collection given to a museum or the work of a famous author. However, in Information Technology, it is a dirty word filled with innuendo and often used as an insult. This is a strange situation and we should define exactly what we mean by legacy before addressing how to deal with it – and even if we should deal with it!
When we refer to a system as being legacy what we're really saying is that the system is built in a way that differs from how we'd choose to do so today. Legacy systems may ...
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