How to Fix Decades of Technical Debt

Global Tech Debt Impedes Growth as AI, Cloud and Legacy Systems Collide Brian Pereira (creed_digital) • October 31, 2025

As companies continue to rely on outdated software and legacy systems, many dating back to the 1980s, they face mounting challenges. Rising maintenance costs, increasing complexity and significant integration hurdles hold back adoption of modern, artificial intelligence-enabled applications that typically operate across hybrid, multi-cloud environments. Technical debt has evolved beyond a mere IT issue - it now poses a serious threat to business growth and competitive advantage.

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Technical debt drains companies of time, money and even customers. It arises whenever speed is prioritized over quality in software development, often driven by the pressure to accelerate time to market. In such cases, immediate delivery takes precedence, while long-term sustainability is compromised. The Twitter Fail Whale incident between 2007 and 2012 is testimony ...