Author: Priyasha Purkayastha, Global Content Manager, TJC Group | Co-author: Thierry Julien, CEO, TJC Group
As data centres continue to grow in both number and energy consumption, addressing the environmental impact of legacy systems becomes increasingly critical. Organisations that proactively opt for decommissioning legacy systems will not only contribute to global sustainability goals but also position themselves advantageously in a business landscape where ESG performance is increasingly linked to overall success. Read this blog to explore more on this topic!
Table of contents
- The growing environmental impact of data centres
- Understanding the environmental burden of legacy systems
- How decommissioning legacy systems advances ESG objectives
- ELSA: TJC Group’s sustainable approach to legacy system decommissioning
- How ELSA supports sustainable decommissioning
- ELSA’s role in a comprehensive decommissioning strategy
- Overcoming challenges in sustainable system decommissioning
The growing environmental impact of data centres
In today’s increasingly environmental-conscious business landscape, organisations are continuously under pressure to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles. It is said that there are over 8 million data centres globally, collectively consuming vast amounts of energy and generating substantial carbon emissions. What’s particularly concerning is that research indicates only 10-15% of the data held by organisations is being actively used; the remainder is often redundant legacy information contributing to unnecessary environmental impact.
With data centres projected to consume 20% of the world’s electricity by 2025, more than any other sector, addressing the environmental impact of outdated IT infrastructure has become a critical sustainability imperative. For organisations committed to sustainability, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. One often overlooked but highly impactful strategy, decommissioning legacy systems can significantly contribute to your organisation’s ESG goals.
By addressing the energy inefficiency of legacy systems through strategic non-SAP and SAP system decommissioning, companies can make not only progress toward their environmental goals but also realise substantial operational benefits.
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Understanding the environmental burden of legacy systems
Legacy systems pose several environmental challenges that directly impact an organisation’s sustainability performance, such as –
Energy inefficiency
Older systems typically consume more energy than modern alternatives, both directly through inefficient hardware and indirectly through increased cooling requirements. These systems often run on outdated servers that lack the energy-efficient components found in contemporary equipment. Keep in mind that idle systems don’t have smaller consumption than live systems; here, decommissioning may greatly move data from database to storage (when an efficient architecture exists.)
Physical space utilisation
Legacy infrastructure frequently occupies valuable physical space that could be used more efficiently or repurposed. The environmental footprint extends beyond just energy consumption to include the resources required to house and maintain these systems. Many corporations reduce existing data rooms and data centres to some extent.
Hardware waste
As legacy systems reach end-of-life, they contribute to the growing problem of e-waste. Without properly decommissioning legacy systems, valuable components may end up in landfills rather than being recycled or repurposed.
Carbon footprint
The combined effect of these inefficiencies results in a larger carbon footprint, as legacy systems require more energy to perform the same functions as their modern counterparts. This increased energy consumption directly translates to higher greenhouse gas emissions.
How decommissioning legacy systems advances ESG objectives
Non-SAP or SAP system decommissioning isn’t merely an IT housekeeping task; it’s a strategic imperative that can significantly advance your organisation’s ESG objectives in several ways. Here are some ways in which retiring obsolete systems can benefit your organisation –
Environmental benefits
Reduced energy consumption
By replacing energy-intensive legacy systems with more efficient alternatives or consolidating workloads onto modern platforms, organisations can dramatically reduce their energy consumption. As a matter of fact, cloud services operate more efficiently than smaller, on-premises local servers, enhancing IT operational efficiency.
Lower carbon emissions
The energy savings from decommissioning legacy systems translate directly into reduced carbon emissions. Modern data centre infrastructure can reduce electricity requirements for lighting, cooling, and power management, further enhancing these environmental benefits.
Minimised e-waste through circular IT practices
A sustainable decommissioning approach applies circular IT principles: reduce, reuse, redeploy, and resell before recycling. In fact, this approach minimises waste and reduces the demand for material extraction, lowering the overall environmental impact of IT operations.
Optimised resource utilisation
One of the major benefits of decommissioning outdated systems is that physical space and computing resources free up. Furthermore, this can be repurposed or optimised, improving overall resource efficiency across the organisation.
Social benefits
Enhanced data security and privacy
Non-SAP or SAP system decommissioning must ensure sensitive data is securely erased or destroyed, protecting customer privacy and reducing the risk of data breaches. This aligns with the growing societal expectation for responsible data management. Moreover, decommissioning obsolete systems also helps maintain data privacy regulations like the GDPR, Loi25, PIPA, DPDP, and other laws across the globe. Most of the time, legacy systems are not built with privacy by design, and applying those regulations on legacy becomes difficult. Therefore, decommissioning becomes a strategic imperative here.
Improved system performance for users
Removing legacy systems often leads to better overall IT performance, improving the user experience for employees and customers alike. This can contribute to greater job satisfaction and productivity. This assume frequent access to data and documents are made, but this is what typically happen with a successful decommissioning project.
Governance benefits
Regulatory compliance
Decommissioning helps organisations comply with evolving data protection and environmental regulations, reducing legal and reputational risks. This includes compliance with standards such as the GDPR, NIST 800-88, ISO 27001, and so on.
Improved transparency and reporting
The measurable environmental benefits of decommissioning legacy systems can be incorporated into sustainability reports, demonstrating tangible progress toward ESG goals to stakeholders.
Cost reduction and resource optimisation
The financial savings from reduced maintenance, support, and energy costs can be redirected toward other sustainability initiatives, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.
ELSA: TJC Group’s sustainable approach to legacy system decommissioning
When it comes to implementing a sustainable decommissioning strategy, having the right tools and expertise is essential. TJC Group’s Enterprise Legacy System Application (ELSA) offers a comprehensive solution specifically designed to address not just the business challenges but also the environmental aspects of decommissioning.
ELSA is a cloud-based application developed by TJC Group to facilitate both non-SAP and SAP system decommissioning. Unlike traditional decommissioning approaches that might simply shut down systems without proper data management, ELSA provides a sophisticated framework for preserving essential historical data while eliminating unnecessary maintenance expenses and reducing environmental impact. Simply put, ELSA helps strike a balance between the advanced capabilities and practical, real-world applications. Organisations, as per their infrastructure needs, can deploy ELSA with data as well as databases – hosted either in the cloud or on-premises. Additionally, our decommissioning solution includes easy to implement data destruction (including mass destruction) as and when needed by the organisations.
How ELSA supports sustainable decommissioning
Cloud-based efficiency
As a cloud application, ELSA inherently reduces the environmental footprint of data storage compared to on-premises alternatives. Cloud infrastructure typically achieves higher resource utilisation rates and energy efficiency through economies of scale and optimised data centre design.
Selective data retention
Also, can be touted as tax relevant data destruction, ELSA enables organisations to be selective about which data they retain after non-SAP or SAP system decommissioning, allowing them to preserve only what’s necessary for business, legal, and compliance purposes. This targeted approach minimises unnecessary data storage and the associated environmental impact.
Reduced hardware requirements
By consolidating data from multiple legacy systems into a single, efficient platform, ELSA significantly reduces the hardware footprint required for data retention. This consolidation directly translates to energy savings and reduced carbon emissions. Even with a single system, architecture split data & document compressed storage with focused database storage is possible when access is required.
Streamlined access to historical data
ELSA provides intuitive interfaces for accessing historical data without the need to maintain entire legacy systems. This efficiency not only improves user experience but also eliminates the energy consumption associated with running outdated, inefficient systems.
Compliance without compromise
ELSA ensures organisations remain compliant with data retention regulations while still realising the environmental benefits of decommissioning legacy systems, addressing a common barrier to sustainable IT transformation.
ELSA’s role in a comprehensive decommissioning strategy
ELSA serves as a cornerstone of a holistic approach to sustainable legacy system decommissioning:
Assessment: TJC Group helps organisations evaluate their legacy landscape and identify decommissioning opportunities with the highest sustainability impact.
Planning: Detailed decommissioning plans incorporate sustainability metrics and goals alongside business requirements.
Implementation: ELSA facilitates the secure migration of essential data while enabling the retirement of energy-intensive legacy systems.
Measurement: Built-in reporting capabilities help organisations quantify the environmental benefits achieved through decommissioning.
Continuous optimisation: Ongoing support ensures that data management remains efficient and environmentally responsible over time.
By providing a structured, environmentally conscious approach to non-SAP and SAP system decommissioning, ELSA helps organisations transform what might, otherwise be a purely technical exercise, into a meaningful contribution to their sustainability objectives.
Overcoming challenges in sustainable system decommissioning
While the ESG benefits of decommissioning legacy systems are compelling, organisations may face several challenges in implementation:
Data migration and retention requirements
Regulatory requirements may necessitate the retention of historical data for extended periods, complicating decommissioning efforts. Solutions like TJC Group’s ELSA enable organisations to maintain compliance while still realising the environmental benefits of decommissioning.
Stakeholder resistance
Stakeholders may resist decommissioning due to familiarity with legacy systems or concerns about business continuity. Communicating the ESG benefits can help build support for these initiatives.
Resource constraints
Decommissioning projects require time, expertise, and financial resources that may compete with other priorities. Framing these projects as ESG initiatives rather than purely IT projects can help secure necessary resources.
The future of sustainable IT infrastructure
As environmental regulations tighten and stakeholder expectations evolve, the pressure on organisations to reduce the environmental impact of their IT operations will only increase. Forward-thinking companies are already moving beyond to proactively design sustainable IT infrastructures:
Cloud migration with sustainability in mind
Organisations are increasingly considering the environmental credentials of cloud providers when migrating workloads, selecting partners with strong commitments to renewable energy and efficient operations.
Embracing circular IT from procurement to retirement
The principles of circular IT are being applied throughout the technology lifecycle, from purchasing decisions that prioritise energy efficiency and repairability to end-of-life, non-SAP or SAP system decommissioning processes that maximise resource recovery.
Integration of IT and sustainability governance
Leading organisations are breaking down silos between IT and sustainability teams, ensuring that technology decisions are evaluated not just for their business impact but also for their environmental consequences.
Renewable energy procurement for data centres
Consolidating electricity demand in data centres allows for large-scale purchases of renewable energy that may not be feasible for smaller operations, further reducing the carbon footprint of IT operations.
Conclusion | Turning legacy liabilities into sustainability assets
In the quest for improved ESG performance, decommissioning legacy systems represent a significant opportunity for organisations to reduce their environmental impact while simultaneously realising business benefits. By adopting a sustainability-focused approach to retiring obsolete systems, companies can transform outdated, energy-intensive systems from liabilities into assets for their sustainability journey.
By partnering with experienced data management experts like TJC Group, organisations can navigate the complexities of obsolete system decommissioning while maximising the ESG benefits. From secure data sanitisation to hardware repurposing and accurate impact measurement, the right partner can help transform your decommissioning project from a technical exercise into a meaningful contribution to your sustainability objectives.
In an era where environmental responsibility is no longer optional, non-SAP and SAP system decommissioning offers a powerful tool for organisations committed to making a positive impact while driving business value. Come, join hands with us to decommission your outdated systems efficiently. Contact us today!
