Eliminating a $50,000 Annual Expense for a Legacy Accounting Database

For many businesses, legacy systems are a necessary burden—expensive to maintain yet still required for historical data access. This was the challenge faced by a mid-sized company that had already migrated to a modern accounting platform but continued to pay $50,000 annually just to keep an old MS SQL database running for reference.

The system required ongoing IT maintenance, including SSL certificate renewals, backups, and user management, despite being accessed only for historical records. The costs and operational overhead were adding up, and the company needed a smarter solution.

By migrating the legacy database to Google BigQuery, they reduced costs for this system by 99.8%, eliminating infrastructure expenses while maintaining seamless, secure access to historical data. This case study explores how they made the transition without disrupting business operations.

Even after migrating to a modern accounting platform, this company couldn't fully retire its old MS SQL-based system. The historical data stored in it was still needed for accounts receivable and accounts payable inquiries, forcing the business to keep the system online.

However, maintaining the legacy database came with significant costs and inefficiencies:

Despite these costs, the system was rarely used beyond historical data lookups. The company needed a way to retain access without the financial and operational burden of maintaining a full database server.

That’s when we worked with them to explore Google BigQuery as a cost-effective alternative.

$50,000 in annual expenses for infrastructure, licensing, and support.

Ongoing IT maintenance, including SSL certificate renewals, backups, and system updates.

User friction, with employees juggling extra logins due to a lack of Single Sign-On (SSO).

Security risks, as the system was still writable, making it vulnerable to accidental or intentional data modifications.

By migrating their legacy MS SQL database to Google BigQuery, the company reduced costs for this system by 99.8%. What once required a $50,000 annual budget for infrastructure, licensing, and maintenance was now a pay-as-you-go model costing just a few dollars per month.