Preparing experiments' software for long term analysis and data preservation (DESY-IT)

<!--HTML-->Preserving data from past experiments and preserving the ability to perform analysis with old data is of growing importance in many domains of science, including High Energy Physics (HEP). A study group on this issue, DPHEP, has been established in this field to provide guidelines and a structure for international collaboration on data preservation projects in HEP. This contribution aims at preparing experiments' software for long term analysis and data preservation. In a first part, we discuss the use of modern techniques like virtualization or Cloud for this purpose. In a second part, we detail the constraints of a supporting IT center for future legacy experiments. In a third part, we present a framework that allows experimentalists to validate their software against a previously defined set of tests in an automated way. We show first usage of the system, and present results gained from the experience with early-bird-users, and future adaptations to the system.