Srikumar Rao takes on the issue of legacy computer systems

Rao's article is a good general piece on the issue of legacy computers, but it fails to offer concrete ideas on how companies can approach legacy systems. To the degree that Rao brings to light a problem with which some executives may not familiar, the article serves a valuable purpose. Rao also does a good job of making sure that the reader understands the magnitude of the problems which can develop in a large organization where there can be multiple networks which are not interconnected.

So long as the article is read from a general point of view, it is interesting and informative. Some MIS managers, for example, may find the article useful in bolstering their arguments to senior management

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needs. Then, as managers became more comfortable with the new technology, they started to ask more penetrating questions. Desktop and LAN data no longer sufficed. They also needed to incorporate enterprisewide data that resided on company mainframes. So chief information officers are beginning to grapple with many thorny issues in dealing with legacy systems. It is no easy task to physically link together and manage disparate LANs. "When you are trying to link computers or systems together, problems crop up at several different levels," says Christian Byrnes, program director at consulting and advisory firm META Group. "It is easy to set up networks poorly. The key to success is to understand a wide variety of requirements and explore a wide variety of potential solutions and technologies." Equally complicated is developing applications that can work together. Most often this involves extracting data from one data base, such as Oracle, and manipulating and merging it with data from another data base, such as Sybase. Many data base vendors provide "middleware," programs that can accomplish this task to a limited extent, but much chaos reigns in this field. Another problem is communicat
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Wide Web, Business Journal, Mario Brothers, According Rao, World Partners, LA Cellular, Information Superhighway, Systems Westbury, Christian Byrnes, Street USA, information superhighway, world wide web, world wide, legacy systems, wide web, fiber optics, data transmission, computer systems, on-line services, fax machines, los angeles, related documents |, link related documents, documents | |, | | subjects,
Approximate Word count = 5059
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)