Rewriting in Rust

Rewriting legacy systems in Rust (RIIR) can deliver genuine performance and memory safety improvements, but results are inconsistent and not guaranteed—some gains come from Rust itself while others simply reflect the benefits of fresh rewrites with modern architecture. IT leaders must recognize that incremental migration strategies with careful validation outperform wholesale rewrites, as even well-funded teams encounter new vulnerabilities, binary size challenges, and platform interoperability issues that can derail projects. The most compelling validation comes from large-scale deployments like Linux kernel and Windows integration, suggesting Rust's viability for critical infrastructure when implemented strategically rather than dogmatically.