A legacy of innovation meets a legacy system: Fujitsu takes on an internal DX project with surprising results

In Japan, awareness of the "2025 Digital Cliff" is on the rise.

The recently published DX Report (*1) by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Study Group for Digital Transformation stated that, "if legacy systems aren't updated by 2025, not only will DX efforts fall short, but Japan could suffer annual economic losses of up to 12 trillion yen (US$95 billion) after 2025." This was a wakeup call across diverse industries that still use legacy systems.

Legacy systems are those that were built using past technologies and architectures, making them difficult to adapt to current technologies. Many of these systems were originally developed decades ago and have become technologically obsolete. They are fraught with problems, such as incompatibility with the latest technologies and insufficient processing capacity, which can lead to system failures.

According to the report, legacy systems that have been in operation for 21 years or more will account for 60% of all systems by 2025. In today's business world, in which speed is a must, that presents an operational burden. These systems can also cause economic stagnation and reduce international competitiveness, making the auditing of current systems an urgent task.

(*1) Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry: DX Report - Overcoming the IT system "2025 Digital Cliff" and the full-scale deployment of DX