Legacy tech can kill the CIO
Technical obstacles that interfere with the ability of IT to offer modern services to end-users. For example, allowing users to access all corporate services from mobile devices or providing them with sophisticated analytics tools can be difficult when the legacy infrastructure requires bolt-on products, patches, and workarounds. The CEO of Pegasystems, Alan Trefler, calls this the Frankenstack; similarly, the CEO of Workday, Aneel Bhusri, refers to it as Frankensoft, based on observations from ZDNet's Brian Sommer.
The cost of maintaining legacy infrastructures can crowd-out the company's investment in new technology. Research from Forrester indicates that only 28 percent of IT investment goes toward innovation; the remainder supports old technology.
Users may resist adopting new technology even when better alternatives are available. The so-called diffusion of innovation is an old problem, identified in a book first published in 1962, by Everett M. Rogers.
