The Upgrade Question: Part 2 - Ten Good Reasons to Consider Upgrading

Last week we spoke about the question on whether or not to upgrade legacy software. This week I wanted to highlight 10 reasons why you might want to consider upgrading.  By examining the risks and benefits associated with each of these areas we can work with customers to help them reduce risk and develop and justify a legacy management plan that ultimately helps to safeguard their business operations in the long term.

1. Product Support  - very old versions are not supported, although we can and do help   
    however we can.

2. Operating System Support – Most new computers will come with the latest operating  
    system.  Older versions of software may not work as well with the new OS.

3. Hardware Support -  Old software versions are often not tested on the latest hardware. i.e. 
    very old  Wonderware InTouch versions are not supported on multi-core CPUs.

4. Enhancing or Modifying your Application – If you are running old, unsupported software, 
    the higher risk involved may mean an integrator will charge you more to make changes.

5. Enhanced Functionality – As software evolves over the years, extra functionality is built in.  
    Much of this could be of benefit to you.

6. Use the Latest DAS Servers -  If you want to communicate to the latest PLCs then you may 
    need to upgrade to the latest DAS Server which may not be compatible with older software.

7. Remove Obsolete Communications – Older versions of InTouch relied on DDE  
    (Dynamic Data Exchange) for communications between nodes and IO servers.  This  
    technology is obsolete and has been replaced by Suitelink and OPC.

8. Improvements to Licensing –  Older versions of InTouch were usually licensed with a    
    parallel port dongle, whereas off the shelf PCs now no longer come with parallel ports.

9. Integration to Other Products – As your site grows, you might find you have newer     
    versions of software you want to integrate with old.  This is often not guaranteed or   
    supported.

10. Take Advantage of New Technologies – Virtualisation technologies, for example,  
     may only be supported in more recent software versions.

Our Technical Support Team deals on a daily basis with the fallout  of a 'wait and see' approach to legacy system management.  That’s their job and they do it well,  but when we work proactively with customers to identify risk areas and develop a legacy management plan upfront, we find much of this fallout can be eliminated.   We would much rather work closely with a customer to stop a crisis from happening in the first instance,  than wait and mop up afterwards once the damage has already been done.

Sue Roche, General Manager, Wonderware UK and Ireland