In Pictures: 20 surefire IT mistakes

9. Treating 'legacy' as a dirty word

Eager young techies may hate the idea that mission-critical processes are still running on systems their grandparents' age, but there's often good reason for IT to value age over beauty. Green screen applications might not be as sexy as the latest cutting-edge widget, but an older system that runs reliably is less risky than a brand-new unknown. Modernizing legacy systems can be expensive, too. Annual maintenance costs for new software projects often run into the millions. In these days of tightened IT budgets, don't be in too much of a hurry to make your "dinosaurs" extinct before their time.