Across the generation

This paper deals with legacy data management. computing legend speaks of legacy data as a heaving hydra with many heads, any one of which can give an enterprise a nasty gnaw-even when its fellows have all been bludgeoned. Legend tells us legacy data is immortal and practically indestructible, although it can be tamed-even harnessed, if properly treated. Perhaps legacy data's true monstrousness lies in the definition, given that no two experts seem able to agree on what legacy data is. The only point of consensus over definition is that most enterprises have data in many places that was created at different times, incurring varying burdens and costs on the IT function. There is little badinage over the big issue of confronting all data, legacy or not, which is the advent of SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture). Legacy data is distinct from archived data that is rarely accessed, and therefore it does need to be in a form that can be accessed in real time by live applications. Legacy data can accumulate like toxic waste-a lethal cocktail of cost and legal liability. As principle repository of legacy software, the mainframe is gaining yet another lease of life from the SOA phenomenon by sucking-in the necessary middleware: SOA is one reason for the resurgence of the mainframe, which is still the best-performance platform.