We are heading into the biggest transformation of business since the move from the Mainframe to open systems. Today’s world requires a nimbleness and costing structure that takes the risk out of technology – all based on cloud services. But how you get there, the business case, and where to start are big issues. The primary challenge is how organizations reconcile their existing systems and decide what application to retire, archive, or completely decommission. Here are a few differences between application retirement and decommissioning:

Attributes	Application Retirement	Application Decommissioning
Definition	Discontinuing the use of an application	Permanent removal of an application from the system
Data Handling	Data retained for compliance may still be accessible	Data archived, migrated, or deleted per policies
Access	Access is restricted or removed	Access entirely disabled; application removed
Risk Management	Lower risk, as data and processes may be accessible	Higher risk, requiring thorough planning and validation
Maintenance	No further updates or maintenance	Application fully removed, eliminating maintenance needs
Outcome	Application remains dormant for reference	Application entirely removed from the environment
Example (Aircraft)	Stored at a ‘graveyard’ for parts or potential reuse	Disassembled and parts recycled

To understand the differences between application retirement and decommissioning, consider the case of an aircraft company. If one of the company’s aircraft is damaged and moved to a ‘graveyard’ for parts to be reused, it is to be considered as ‘retired.’ Conversely, if the aircraft is completely disassembled and parts are sent to be recycled, then it is to be considered as a ‘decommissioned’ aircraft.

In business, retired applications are like damaged or unused aircraft in storage, potentially useful for later. Decommissioned applications, like dismantled planes, are permanently removed. Applying this analogy helps businesses manage their IT assets effectively, balancing between retaining useful data and eliminating outdated systems.

What is Application Retirement?

Application retirement is the process of deactivating or shutting down old corporate applications. It’s worth noting that uninstalling apps does not affect the company’s core systems, applications, or data. However, this applies to secondary systems and applications like [No-Longer-Required] NLR software. Although the company may lose some capacity during this transition, it gives tremendous cost savings and value for money.

Why do businesses need Application Retirement?

There are several reasons for application retirement and not install them on systems:

• Risk for Businesses: Businesses face risks such as low technical capabilities for system maintenance. Recruiting personnel with current technological skills is costly and retaining them in-house is challenging. Many present programs do not work with newer platforms or systems. As a result, legacy systems only support outdated operating systems and databases that can’t get updated with recent security patches and software upgrades. It is a persistent issue that threatens internet security.
• Data silo and integration challenges: Legacy systems cannot frequently interface with modern systems, resulting in data gaps and inefficiencies.
• High maintenance cost: Legacy programs can be costly to maintain due to old technology and a lack of skilled employees. The yearly cost of supporting software programs can be up to four times the initial purchase.
• Demands more time and effort: Supporting old systems causes disruptions in new business and IT efforts. Eliminating old applications relieves IT workers of the headache of firewalling systems with little business value, but it also lowers deployment costs, allowing the IT team to focus on innovation.
• Periodic Compliance Issues: Global worries regarding data governance are increasing. Many government mandates have prompted most organizations to prioritize data management and privacy. Older apps may lack the appropriate security measures to manage access to sensitive data and may be incompatible with current access needs.

Application Retirement Checklist

There comes a point where installing an app becomes a strategic decision. Proper process management is critical to maintaining data integrity, adhering to rules, and ensuring a seamless transition. To assist you in this process, below is a complete checklist outlining the main stages for application retirement:

• Analysis and Data Extraction: To begin, carefully review the information given in the application. Transform business requirements into data extraction so there is no overlooking of critical data.
• Identifying the Objective of business: This method converts raw data into organized business objects. When you finish an application, edit and format the data to meet current and future company demands.
• Persistent storage: After downloading the data, save it to ensure the data’s integrity. It includes essential metadata for validation to facilitate information retrieval and referencing.
• Keep the business alive: Create storage spaces for data according to company requirements and regulatory rules. Implement an authoritative approach to monitor content until it gets removed on a scheduled basis.
• Check the Details: Ensure that business documents are available for stakeholder discussions. Configure access rights and user permissions to provide safe access to information.

What is Application Decommissioning?

Application decommissioning is a systematic approach to methodically retiring obsolete and high-pricing applications while maintaining business demands and government requirements. It gets accomplished in two prime ways.

• Analyzing the Application Portfolio: It uses a rigorous process to analyze the application portfolio and identify the best candidates for decommissioning. This is based on a combination of their value to the business, the savings that can be made, and the cost to retire them. In general, the best candidates have valuable data that needs to be retained for a long time—thus offering longer-term cost savings, while not being overly difficult to deal with technically.
• Employing Technology for Data Extraction and Archival: Employ technology that can extract data from difficult legacy environments and store it in a simpler, open, and more compliant system of record. This includes maintaining a full legal chain-of-custody audit trail of the data, maintaining business logic around data layout and cardinality, and allowing a more standard set of security, privacy, retention policies and rules in the archival.

Benefits of Application Decommissioning

Application decommissioning provides several benefits to organizations seeking to modernize their IT infrastructure and operations. Here are some of the prime advantages:

• Cost Effective: Retiring outdated programs reduces the need for costly maintenance and support, freeing up resources for new strategic IT initiatives.
• Improved efficiency: Legacy applications can help streamline company processes and minimize complexity in increased efficiency and production.
• Enhanced security: Traditional programs frequently lack the most recent security measures and are prone to cyber-attacks. Decommissioning these systems and switching to more secure apps can improve data security.
• Compliance and Risk Management: Moving away from old applications ensures that the organization adheres to industry requirements and eliminates the risk of non-compliance associated with outdated systems.
• Data Integration and Decommissioning: Application decommissioning helps consolidate data from various systems into uniform, combined platforms, allowing for improved data analysis and decision-making.
• Optimizing resources: Decommissioning existing programs enables organizations to better use their resources, such as hardware, software, and IT workers, for other strategic goals.

Application Decommissioning Checklist

• Assessment and Planning: Identify which legacy applications to decommission, evaluate their impact, and plan data retention and archival strategies.
• Data Migration and Archiving: Archive historical data for compliance by extracting, transforming, and migrating data to new systems while ensuring data integrity.
• Retirement: Notify stakeholders, set a retirement timeline, disable access, and transfer relevant data to new systems.
• Modernization and Implementation: Choose modern replacements, test their functionality, train users, and implement security measures.
• Risk Assessment and Mitigation: Identify and mitigate potential risks and monitor for unforeseen challenges.
• Communication and Change Management: Communicate the plan, provide updates, and support users adapting to new applications.
• Testing and Validation: Test new applications for functionality, validate data accuracy, and ensure performance standards are met.
• Documentation and Knowledge Transfer: Document the process, transfer knowledge, and provide training materials.
• Post-Decommissioning Review: Evaluate success, gather feedback, address issues, and monitor the new applications for performance and security.

Following this checklist ensures a smooth transition, improved efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced security.

Platform 3 Solutions assists with application retirement and decommissioning, allowing organizations to simplify their application portfolios while lowering infrastructure expenses. Traditional apps demand massive data center resources that provide data governance and compliance problems.

Platform 3 Solutions provides all the benefits of retirement without the drawbacks associated with previous solutions. Would you want to learn more about application retirement and how Platform 3 solutions can assist you with this critical service? Please check our website or contact us.

Reference: https://avendata.com/blog/systems-decommissioning-definition-types-benefits-process