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Legacy Modernization
What does your legacy system really cost?
March 2026·8 min min read
“We’ve had this system for 20 years, it still runs — why touch it?” We hear this a lot. It’s understandable. But legacy systems cost money every day — even when they “run”.
The 3 visible cost categories
- Direct maintenance: spare parts, service contracts, technicians.
- Unplanned downtime: production interruptions can cost €300–€2,000 per hour depending on the line.
- Manual compensation: reporting, data entry, workarounds.
The 3 hidden cost categories
- Opportunity cost: new products/variants are blocked.
- Security risk: unpatched CVEs + compliance pressure (e.g. NIS2).
- Cliff risk: when it fails, it’s expensive (reactive modernization is often 2–3×).
What this means in practice
If your visible costs are already above ~€50k/year, planned modernization typically pays back within 12–24 months — often faster.
Note: We intentionally keep the interactive cost calculator as a Svelte page (not Markdown) because it needs inputs/sliders.
Interactive
Your legacy cost calculator
20 hours
€500
€30,000
10 h
Estimated annual visible legacy costs
(visible costs only — excludes opportunity cost)
€181,200
per year
Rule of thumb: Above ~€50k/year, planned modernization typically pays back within 12–24 months in most cases we see. Book an intro call →