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The war of words between Delta, Microsoft and CrowdStrike continues one month after the July 19 tech outage that grounded flights, disrupted emergency services and knocked banks offline. Among other things, the squabble reminds us of the risks involved when legacy systems are not kept up to date.
War of Words, In Brief
First, the backstory. Delta wasn't the only airline hurt by the CrowdStrike bug, but it was one of the airlines that took longest to recover. Following a week of widespread cancellations, Delta threatened legal action against CrowdStrike and Microsoft for damages.
Microsoft responded by pointing to Delta's outdated technology as the reason the airline took longer to recover than other carriers. It also claimed that Delta declined assistance after a bug from CrowdStrike resulted in "blue screens of death" on Windows devices.
A letter from Microsoft legal counsel Mark Cheffo published in Ars Technica asserted that while Microsoft's software did not cause the outage, the company "immediately stepped in and offered to assist Delta at no cost."
According to the letter, a Microsoft employee, aware that Delta was struggling more than other airlines to recover, messaged a Delta employee on the morning of July 22 saying, "Just checking in—no pressure to reply, but if you need anything from your Microsoft team today, just let us know." The Delta employee reportedly replied, saying “All good. Cool will let you know and thank you.”
The Growing Complexity of Digital Workplaces
What happens with the three giants is up to their legal counsels to hammer out. But for other digital workplaces, it offers a warning around the dangers in legacy systems. Cast Software COO Ernie Hu said the problem lies in the growing complexity of enterprise systems and the difficulties related to updating legacy technology.
“Today’s custom-built applications entail multiple languages, frameworks and databases. Their growing complexity makes it hard to make even the smallest of changes as developers spend 58% of their time just trying to comprehend the existing code structures,” he said. Developers, for their part, spend more than half their time researching code rather than maintaining and writing it.
The people tasked with updating these systems, as well as refactoring the millions of lines of code created over decades during a cloud migration, requires deep understanding of the software architecture, its components and interdependencies.
Lack of documentation and absence of developers with legacy knowledge bogs down architects and development teams, Hu said. They often resort to trial-and-error methods for refactoring, taking wrong turns and inadvertently introducing production defects which adversely affect the business.
To counter that, he added, digital workplace leaders need to stay on top of emerging trends that might impact the workplace.
"Understanding these trends and the software that digital workers are using, enables interpretation of data and source code structures so that business and technology leaders can better understand and control the complex software systems underpinning their business processes," he said.
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Updates and Adaptations for Legacy Systems
The Delta issues have a "head-in-the-sand" quality to them, according to Auvik co-founder and strategic advisor Alex Hoff. “While I cannot speculate what was going through the minds of the IT team at Delta, one could only imagine the adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ was top of mind,” he said.
“In the IT world, however, that is most certainly not best practice. While upgrading systems, dependencies and custom line of business software can be time consuming and expensive, it must be done to stay secure.”
He added that as researchers find vulnerabilities or exploits (typically in commonly used dependency/libraries that make up the application), they need to be fixed or malicious actors can gain unauthorized access.
To rectify, software companies issue patches or provide newer versions that incorporate fixes, which is why we are constantly updating software even if no new features are available. "The older the system, the more likely the chance that someone can take advantage of an exploit. Let this act as a lesson to keep our systems up to date,” Hoff said.
While updating infrastructure requires investment, the risks of relying on legacy tech far outweigh the costs, Corin Dolan of Accutech added.
The key is balancing legacy systems and new solutions. He shared the example of client work, where they kept their existing network hardware but added wireless access points, enabling campus-wide WiFi access. Strategic augmentations like this maximize existing investments while providing new capabilities.
“Technology is always changing, so businesses must adapt systems and workflows to stay competitive, but with the right approach legacy tech and modern solutions can work together,” Dolan said.
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Security Risks
Legacy systems frequently lack the most recent security patches and upgrades, which makes them vulnerable to data breaches, loss of sensitive information and opens up compliance concerns around regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA. Generally, according to Zennaxx Technology founder and CEO Kunal Vaja, out of date technology can have three major impacts:
1. Compatibility Issues
As new technologies develop, outdated systems may become incompatible with newer software, hardware and platforms, Vaja said. This may limit integration options, making it harder to use new tools and technology that might improve business operations.
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2. Operational Challenges
Older systems are more prone to malfunctions, which result in lost production and income, he continued. Outdated technology frequently lacks the most recent security fixes, making it an ideal target for cyberattacks. Legacy systems are often less efficient than their newer counterparts, resulting in higher costs and longer operations.
3. Customer Dissatisfaction
Slow, unreliable systems can annoy consumers and harm brand reputation. Customers may migrate to competitors that have superior technology and services.
Failing to properly manage technology assets provides you with short-term profits but snowballing expenses down the line, said Travis Fisher, EVP of Inacom.
The industry recommends systems are turned over every three-to-five years. At that age, the cost to maintain a system doubles. “You're still on the hook to replace the aging equipment, though. You are just passing off capital expenditures as operating expenses in the form of your IT Department's pool of labor,” Fisher said.