Software maintenance for public administration: How old systems lead to digital sovereignty

> Key Takeaway: Public administrations often work with legacy systems based on outdated technologies like COBOL or proprietary frameworks. Software rescue stabilizes these systems through security patches, API wrappers for modern integrations, and gradual replacement following the Strangler Pattern — a path to digital sovereignty without big-bang risk.

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** Public administration** in Germany is facing one of the biggest challenges of its recent history: comprehensive digitalization. While the online access law (OZG) gives the clear order to digitally offer administrative services by the end of 2022 (with extension), many municipalities and authorities struggle with an invisible but powerful opponent: the Legacy systems. These often decades-old software systems are the backbone of administrative processes, but at the same time a massive brake pad for innovation and efficiency.

Here the concept of Software maintenance for public administration applies. It is not just a costly and risky complete detachment, but a strategic, step-by-step approach that preserves the expertise bound in the old systems and makes IT infrastructure sustainable. This article highlights the urgency of IT moderation municipalities, the advantages of software maintenance and how this path leads to the urgently needed digital sovereignty.

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The Digital Challenge of Public Hands

Digitization of administration is not an optional project, but a necessity driven by legal requirements, demographic change and citizens' expectations. But reality often looks different.

The Ballast of Legacy Systems

Many critical administrative tasks – from the management of the reporting office to budgetary matters to social assistance – are still carried out by systems developed in the 1980s or 1990s. These Legacy systems present the administration with immense problems:

**High maintenance costs:**The maintenance and maintenance of these systems requires specialized knowledge in outdated programming languages (e.g. COBOL, PL/I), which is expensive and increasingly difficult to find.

2. **Safety risks:**Old architectures and missing updates make the systems vulnerable to modern cyber attacks. Compliance with the DSGVO becomes a mammoth task.

3. Reducing interoperability: The systems are often monolithic and can hardly communicate with modern interfaces (APIs), making it difficult to connect administrative services (federal architecture).

4. Business risk: A failure of a critical old system can paralyze the entire administration.

OZG and the need for modernization

The Online Access Act (OZG) obliges the federal government to offer its administrative services digitally by the end of the implementation period. However, the OZG conversion requires more than just an online form. It requires continuous digitization of the processes behind it. When the digital frontends meet outdated, inefficient backends, digitalization fails at the core. The IT-Modernization Communes is therefore the key to achieving the OZG objectives and citizens-friendly, demolition-free