It’s Time to Treat Legacy Data as a Strategic Asset, Not an Afterthought

Over the past years, the healthcare industry has seen a dramatic acceleration in digital transformation, with healthcare provider organizations modernizing their health records and investing heavily in interoperability, cybersecurity and patient access. 

Yet amid this forward motion, one area has lagged — how we manage the massive amount of legacy data left behind in the wake of system transitions and consolidations. This data, often residing in outdated platforms that are no longer patched, secured, or even fully understood, is too frequently seen as a burden. 

But legacy data represents one of the most strategic assets a healthcare organization has. And it is time we treat it that way.

When we look back at how healthcare organizations have historically approached legacy data, it’s been primarily through the lens of risk mitigation. System retirement decisions were focused on avoiding compliance violations or cyber threats. 

These concerns remain valid, especially with the increased enforcement of the 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule.

But in 2025, the conversation has evolved. Legacy data is no longer just a regulatory hurdle or storage challenge. It’s now part of the broader narrative around data governance, digital transformation and care quality. And it’s a narrative healthcare leaders cannot afford to ignore.

In the past, retaining legacy data often meant simply keeping systems on life support. 

This approach created significant technical debt. Aging platforms require costly licenses, support from retiring vendors, and additional cybersecurity monitoring, all of which strain IT teams and budgets already stretched thin. 

Maintaining access to this data in its native system also creates operational inefficiencies. Clinicians and Health Information Management professionals may need to log into multiple platforms to get a full patient history, delaying care and increasing the risk of incomplete information. Worse, these systems often lack modern security protocols, making them prime targets for ransomware attacks. 

In 2023 alone, more than 730 healthcare data breaches were reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, many of which were linked to unmonitored, outdated, or unsupported legacy systems. These environments often fly under the radar until a critical failure exposes sensitive data or disrupts operations.

 These breaches not only disrupt healthcare services but underscore a broader industry vulnerability that too many healthcare organizations are still relying on outdated infrastructure that lack oversight, support, and security controls. As threats grow more sophisticated, the cost of inaction becomes too great to ignore. Investing in regular assessments, modern system upgrades, and a proactive risk management strategy is essential for protecting patient data and preserving trust.

These pressures have prompted more health systems to evaluate their strategies around data governance and management because it is no longer just a back-office concern.

When it comes to legacy data, the complexity doesn’t just stem from the number of replaced applications, but it also comes from the volume and variety of information those systems contain. Legacy systems may house decades of patient records, billing information, and operational data in both structured and unstructured formats. In some cases, organizations attempt to migrate all this data into a new system, only to find the complexity unsustainable. 

Others make the mistake of retaining it in the old applications indefinitely, increasing risk exposure without a clear plan for access or use. What’s needed instead is a deliberate, validated approach that allows organizations to extract value from this historical data without incurring unnecessary risk. An active archive to consolidate all legacy data can lay the foundation. 

We are also entering a new phase in healthcare where legacy data has value beyond compliance or care continuity. With the rise of AI and machine learning in health systems, archived data can feed analytics that inform population health strategies, detect gaps in care, or even train predictive models. 

However, using legacy data for these purposes requires it to consolidated and made available through secure platforms. This is one of the reasons we are seeing increased demand for cloud-based archives that offer scalability, role-based access controls, and integration with enterprise analytics tools.

In addition to technological progress, we are seeing a shift in mindset. More executives are asking how legacy data can be aligned with business strategy. The answer lies in redefining legacy data management not as a one-time IT project, but as an ongoing organizational discipline. 

Legacy data is no longer just about what we keep, but it’s about how we use it. In an industry where information is critical to every decision and every patient interaction, legacy data shouldn’t live in the shadows. It must be actively governed, securely archived and thoughtfully integrated into the broader data strategy of an organization.

We have entered an era where digital maturity will win the day for healthcare. And digital maturity is not just about the new systems we implement, but it is also about how we manage and see value from the old systems. For any organization still delaying their legacy data strategy, now is the time to act because the risks are too great not to.