Four Reasons Why Upgrading to Vantage is Worth It

If it’s been a while since you’ve upgraded your Teradata analytics software, you’re probably overdue to make the change — and you’re not alone. In a 2018 RIS News/Gartner survey of senior-level retail executives, 38 percent of respondents said that refreshing legacy systems would be a top obstacle over the next 18 months. However, 13 percent said that they don’t even have a digital transformation strategy in place yet. 

There’s a reason why companies put off upgrades: they think that the time and effort required to execute them will be too costly. But running on outdated versions of software can cost more than going through with an upgrade.
 
After decades of helping organizations across industries and all over the globe upgrade their analytic systems, we’ve identified the four strongest reasons why making the transition is well worth it.

Reason #1: New Features and Capabilities

At Teradata, we’re constantly working to make tomorrow’s user experience and software features better than today’s. We know that the digital economy will always present new data types and analytics demands to customers like you who need software that’s responsive to changing business needs. 
 
But if you’re working with outdated Teradata analytics software, it’s likely that your technology stack won’t support these new innovations. Without the latest capabilities, you’re probably not getting the best answers to drive your business.
 
For example, if you’re not yet using Teradata Vantage, you’re missing out on more than 130 new features and enhancements, as well as the integration of leading-edge analytics engines and functionsinto a single environment. Bringing these capabilities together enables your team to focus less on locating functions or moving data and more on delivering answers crucial to your business. Vantage also allows you to deploy across cloud, hybrid, or on-premises, providing you with the flexibility to adjust your analytics workloads as your deployment strategies shift.

Reason # 2: Improved Performance

Vantage offers many performance features with over 130 new enhancements. And the performance improvements won’t stop there — we’re constantly optimizing our platform and the speed of queries running on our software. When you upgrade to Vantage, you can also consolidate and integrate disparate platforms. This leads to improved team performance and productivity as your people waste less time moving data between different environments. 
 
If you’re concerned about whether your older infrastructure will support Vantage software, then upgrading to an as-a-service offering in the cloud can enable you to leverage the latest Vantage features and improve your performance. But even if you’re not ready to move to the cloud, upgrading your on-premises systems still helps you get the best possible performance from your analytics investment. Thanks to Moore’s Law and software improvements, newer technology often runs substantially faster than legacy systems, which translates into your people being more productive and arriving at answers that drive business outcomes more quickly. 

Reason #3: Lower Maintenance Costs 

We don’t want to understate the effort required in upgrading legacy technology. We’ve helped hundreds of companies like yours make the process as seamless as possible, but we know that upgrading still requires careful considerations and planning, no matter the size of the organization. You may also be weighing the high upfront costs that may come with upgrading your legacy systems. 
 
However, if you do the math on the long-term costs of managing and maintaining old technology stacks, you may find that replacing them will actually save you money. In fact, a report published by the IT consulting firm Avanade estimated that modernizing legacy IT systems could decrease operational costs by 13 percent and increase annual revenue by over 14 percent.
 
Too often we’ve seen companies delaying needed upgrades for so long that their productivity and performance suffer. In some cases, the software being used is no longer supported, and IT teams waste time responding to a slew of technical problems that have been fixed in the latest releases. For time-constrained and resource-strapped organizations, running on legacy software compounds the effort already required to manage and maintain the environment. 

Reason #4: Increased Flexibility and Agility

Considering the rapidly evolving, competitive digital world that we live in, it’s no wonder that 90 percent of our customers are considering moving to a hybrid cloud deployment model. Many realize that remaining on legacy systems can hinder them from maximizing availability, scale, and agility.

Upgrading your Teradata analytics software opens you up to greater flexibility of deployment options that best suit your business, whether you choose to deploy on managed or private cloud, on- or off-premises, or through a hybrid solution. You can select the configuration that meets your unique, dynamic strategic goals and analytics environment.
For our customers, upgrading to Vantage has also enabled them to de-risk their IT decision making. Vantage is the only analytics platform of its kind that uses exactly the same software in all deployment choices, which guarantees that moving from one environment to another doesn’t impact your existing applications and reports. Vantage licenses are also portable, which means that you can move from one deployment option to another without being bound to a location.

Upgrade Your Teradata Analytics Software Today

We’d love to make your upgrading process as frictionless and effective as possible. Whether you’re a Teradata customer interested in upgrading to Vantage or haven’t worked with us before, please don’t hesitate to contact our sales team today.