This is part of SSA's stated reasoning in their 2017 modernization plan, which asserted the need for a 5-year upgrade process. https://www.ssa.gov/open/materia

This is part of SSA's stated reasoning in their 2017 modernization plan, which asserted the need for a 5-year upgrade process. https://www.ssa.gov/open/materials/IT-Modernization-Plan.pdf https://www.ssa.gov/open/materials/IT-Modernization-Plan.pdf > Yet, we place extraordinary demands on an installed base of technology that is increasingly showing its age. Most of our core systems are over 30 years old and some embedded software components are older. Over the years, newer technologies have been integrated with these legacy systems without a fundamental redesign of the system and enterprise environment within which it operates. Today, the cost of operating in this legacy environment is expensive. Front- line SSA employees are finding these systems increasingly difficult to use, and members of the public are not getting the self-service opportunities they have come to expect based on their experience with commercial enterprises. Furthermore, systems engineers with legacy system expertise are retiring from SSA at an increasing rate. Replacing them with similarly skilled staff is also increasingly difficult in the current job market.