Why Organisations Emulate Legacy Systems Instead of Rewriting Them
There is a persistent assumption in technology that old systems should be replaced. Legacy is treated as a synonym for obsolete, and the instinctive response to an ageing system is to rewrite it in something modern. Yet across industry after industry, organisations running critical legacy systems repeatedly choose a different path: rather than rewriting, they emulate. Understanding why reveals a great deal about how risk, cost, and continuity actually weigh against the appeal of a clean rewrite, and why emulation is so often the wiser engineering decision.