ERP Legacy Data Archival Strategy
When the new ERP goes live, the legacy system does not simply disappear. Organizations face regulatory retention requirements of 7-10 years for financial data, tax records, and audit trails. Maintaining legacy system licenses and infrastructure just for data access can cost $100K-$500K annually. A structured archival strategy preserves compliance-required data in accessible formats while enabling timely and cost-effective legacy system decommissioning.
Retention Requirements Analysis
Before deciding what to archive, you must understand what you are legally and operationally required to retain. Retention requirements vary by data type, industry, and jurisdiction. Financial records typically require 7-year retention (SOX, IRS), healthcare data may require 10+ years (HIPAA), and some contractual obligations extend retention indefinitely. Map every data object to its applicable retention rule.
- Regulatory requirements: SOX (7 years financial), HIPAA (6-10 years medical), GDPR (purpose-limited), industry-specific rules
- Tax authority requirements: IRS requires 7 years of supporting documentation; international jurisdictions vary from 5-15 years
- Contractual obligations: review customer and supplier contracts for data retention clauses that may exceed regulatory minimums
- Operational needs: determine which historical data is actually needed for business analytics, trending, and customer service
- Litigation hold: identify any data subject to legal holds that must be preserved regardless of standard retention schedules
Archival Architecture Options
Three primary archival architectures exist: read-only legacy system preservation, structured data extraction to a data warehouse, and document-based archival to PDF/flat files. The optimal choice depends on access frequency, query complexity, and cost tolerance. Most organizations use a hybrid approach—structured archival for frequently accessed data and document-based archival for rarely accessed historical records.
- Read-only legacy: keep legacy system running in read-only mode—simplest but most expensive ($100K-$500K annually in licensing)
- Data warehouse archival: extract legacy data into a reporting database (SQL Server, PostgreSQL) with a lightweight query interface
- Document archival: render key reports and records to PDF, store in a document management system or cloud storage (S3, Azure Blob)
- Vendor archival solutions: purpose-built tools like OpenText, Metalogix, or SNP Outboard that specialize in ERP data archival
Legacy System Decommissioning Timeline
Legacy system decommissioning should follow a phased timeline that reduces cost progressively while maintaining access to required data. The typical decommissioning timeline spans 12-24 months post go-live: the first 6 months maintain full legacy access during hypercare, months 7-12 transition to archived access, and months 13-24 complete final data extraction and infrastructure shutdown.
- Phase 1 (months 1-6): full legacy system access maintained for reference during hypercare and parallel operation
- Phase 2 (months 7-12): migrate remaining access to archival platform, restrict legacy to read-only, reduce infrastructure
- Phase 3 (months 13-18): complete final data extraction, validate archival completeness, begin infrastructure decommissioning
- Phase 4 (months 19-24): final infrastructure shutdown, license termination, and formal decommissioning sign-off
- Cost savings tracking: document monthly cost reduction from infrastructure downsizing and license termination
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