Most of your legacy IT spend keeps old systems running for one reason: the data inside them. Cella retires those systems and holds the data in one secure store, so you cut the running cost and free the budget for what comes next.
Legacy system modernisation and IT cost reduction Stop paying to keep the past alive.
Trusted by enterprise IT and finance teams across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Where the budget goes
Legacy systems are quietly draining your IT budget
For most large organisations, a large slice of the IT budget never touches anything new. It goes on keeping ageing systems alive – systems no one uses day to day, kept running only because of the records inside them. The cost of maintaining legacy systems is real, recurring and easy to underestimate.
15%
of the IT budget, on average, is spent maintaining legacy systems rather than moving the business forward.
Up to 80%
of a system’s total cost of ownership can be removed by decommissioning it.
Paying for the data, not the system
You keep the system for the records inside it
You cannot switch a legacy system off while it is the only place its data lives, and you cannot delete data you are required to keep. So the system stays – and keeps costing, in three ways.
Licences and support
Vendor licences, support contracts and specialist skills for applications your teams barely open.
Infrastructure and hosting
Servers, storage, backups and disaster recovery kept running for systems held only for their history.
Risk and compliance
Patching, security and audits for ageing platforms that get harder – and more expensive – to keep compliant every year.
How Cella fits
Decommission the systems, cut the cost
Cella breaks the link between keeping the data and keeping the system. It extracts the records into one secure, reportable store, then lets you switch the legacy system off for good – removing its licences, infrastructure, support and security overhead while the data stays fully accessible.
- Retire what you only keep for data. Switch off legacy systems kept alive purely for their records.
- Cut up to 80% of the cost. Remove licences, infrastructure, support and hosting for each retired system.
- Keep every record. Data stays accessible for reporting, audit and compliance in one secure, searchable store.
- Rationalise the estate. Application rationalisation made simple: consolidate many legacy applications into one platform and shrink your application portfolio.
- Fund what’s next. Free the budget locked in legacy IT for the legacy modernisation projects that actually move the business forward.
The business case
A programme that pays for itself
Cella follows a factory approach, so the savings do the funding. You start where the cost is highest, and each system you retire releases budget for the next – the programme pays for itself as it scales.
Start where it hurts
Retire your most expensive legacy system first, for the biggest, fastest saving.
Savings fund the next
Each decommissioning releases run-cost that funds the following system, so the programme self-finances.
A compounding return
Every system switched off lowers your run-cost permanently and simplifies the estate you have left to secure.
The payoff
Lower run-cost, funded modernisation
Decommissioning with Cella turns a standing cost into a one-off project and a lasting saving. Lower total cost of ownership, freed IT budget and a simpler application portfolio – with fewer systems to secure.
Go further
Take the business case further
Want the full argument, with the numbers? Read the business case for decommissioning, or see how the Cella platform delivers it.
Proof
Trusted to take cost out of legacy estates
50+
enterprise clients
600+
systems decommissioned
40+
system types
Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major European multinationals and public sector organisations across Europe, the Americas and Asia, and built on 30+ years of legacy data experience. Enterprises across energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing trust Cella to free decades of data from legacy systems and hold it in one secure, governed store.
Any questions?
Get in touch
Legacy system modernisation FAQs
If you have a question, please use our short form to send it over. We’re always happy to chat.
Estimates vary, but maintaining legacy systems typically consumes around 15% of the IT budget. Decommissioning can remove up to 80% of a system’s total cost of ownership.
Switching a legacy system off entirely removes its licences, infrastructure, support, hosting and security overhead. Cella keeps the data accessible in one secure store, so you cut the running cost without losing the records.
Legacy system modernisation is replacing, re-platforming or retiring ageing applications so your IT estate is cheaper, safer and easier to run. Decommissioning is a fast, low-risk first step: retire the systems you only keep for their data and free the budget for modernisation.
Application rationalisation – also called application portfolio rationalisation – means reducing the number of applications you run by retiring, consolidating or replacing them. Cella supports it by decommissioning redundant systems into one platform, simplifying the portfolio and cutting cost.
Yes. Your historical data stays fully accessible for reporting, audit and compliance in one secure, searchable store, long after the original system is switched off.
Ready to cut the cost of legacy IT?
Talk to our team about retiring the systems you only keep for data, and see how much you could save.