Legacy Application Modernization & Migration

Enterprise technology is developing rapidly, and organizations of every hue are striving to keep pace with the latest trends. Legacy application modernization is thus no longer optional.

Read on for insights on why you must focus on modernizing legacy apps and the pathway to legacy systems transformation. Also learn of the benefits that await and why legacy-to-cloud transformation is the future. And much more!

But first, what does modernizing legacy apps have to do with migration?

Food for Thought: The Relationship Between Legacy Application Modernization & Migration

Application modernization strategy is all about updating existing applications to make use of newer technologies, functionalities, and architectures while keeping the core business logic and data unchanged. The intention behind such an undertaking is to improve the performance, scalability, security, maintainability, and user experience of an application.

Migration is often a key aspect of application modernization. This is especially true in the case of applications that are moved from an on-premises to a cloud environment. Migration to the cloud helps legacy applications save on costs while simultaneously easing the IT maintenance process. It also boosts scalability by enabling quick and easy scaling up/down based on need.

How to Modernize Legacy Applications: Key Considerations

At the start of the process, modernizing legacy applications can seem a daunting process. However, keeping a few considerations in mind can make the process fruitful.

Think about the business goals you plan to achieve with the modernization process. Is your goal increased agility, cost reduction, improved customer experience, or something else?

Decide the approach you wish to take. Do you want to rehost, replatform, refactor, re-architect, or completely replace your app? Shifting to the microservices architecture for legacy apps is a common approach.

Analyze the costs associated with shifting to the cloud and how it compares to your present expenditure.

Select the right cloud provider and third-party vendors.

Make sure to implement robust security protocols for the cloud environment.

Set up seamless integrations with other systems and services, whether they are on-premises or on the cloud.

Adopt DevOps practices to ensure continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).

Being mindful of these app modernization best practices can help a great deal with modernizing, especially when moving to the cloud. Now, a closer look at what’s in store for those who choose to modernize.

A Peek at the Benefits of Modernizing Legacy Systems

Here are some notable reasons why it makes sense to modernize legacy apps:

Better flexibility & agility: Modernized apps are more adaptable to change, allowing businesses to respond quickly to new market demands and opportunities.

Better productivity & efficiency: Modernization streamlines processes, automates tasks, and eliminates redundancies, leading to heightened productivity overall.

Better scalability: Compared to legacy systems, modern systems can easily scale to meet growing business needs and support future growth.

Better integration: Modern systems can integrate more easily with other applications and services, facilitating data sharing and collaboration.

Improved security: Legacy systems often have outdated security protocols, making them vulnerable to cyberattacks. Modernizing these systems significantly improves security and reduces risk.

Cost savings: Modernization leads to long-term cost savings through reduced maintenance, improved efficiency, and lower infrastructure costs.

Seamless customer experiences: Modernized apps are better able to provide a seamless and personalized customer experience.

It’s clear that modernizing legacy application systems is a smart move, especially with the future clearly rooted in the cloud.

The Future is on the Cloud: Cloud-Native Transformation for Legacy Apps

The use of on-premises server-based architecture for apps is on the wane. Legacy apps are being completely re-architected and managed on the cloud. Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP make it possible to provide a broad cloud-native transformation for legacy apps.

Cloud-native applications work based off a variety of technologies that help make them future-proof and resilient. They leverage containerization and microservices as well as serverless and multi-tenant architectures that reduce the need for managing clunky infrastructure. They also offer databases that reside entirely on the cloud.

Moreover, methods like distributed caching and cache invalidation ensure that the latest and most-relevant data is offered to each app user. Further, continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) for cloud DevOps as well as infrastructure as code (IaC) enable consistent and scalable deployments of app changes.

Costs associated with cloud-native apps are considerably reduced when compared to on-premises server-based deployments. Placing the emphasis on cloud FinOps as a practice helps to further cut down on expenses.

Finally, cloud-native development frameworks like Techcello can help with scalability in a big way and offer other benefits like:

50% savings on the engineering budget, implementation time, and cost

60% to 80% reduction in support workloads

A 10x reduction in operating expenses

Increased product value

While moving to the cloud is not without its challenges, a capable digital software engineering partner can help make the move seamless. But first what are these challenges?

Challenges in Migrating Legacy Systems to the Cloud

Here are some notable challenges in migrating legacy systems to the cloud:

Legacy systems may have intricate dependencies between different components, making it challenging to isolate and migrate individual parts to the cloud.

Poorly documented legacy systems can make it difficult to understand their functionality and dependencies, increasing the risk of errors during migration.

Migrating large volumes of data from legacy systems to the cloud can be time-consuming and complex, especially if the data is stored in different formats or databases.

Ensuring data integrity during migration is crucial. Organizations need to validate the migrated data to ensure it is accurate and consistent.

Legacy systems may have known security vulnerabilities that can be exploited during or after migration.

Insufficient testing before, during, and after migration can lead to problems in the production environment.

Final Word

It is a no-brainer to modernize legacy apps. The benefits are simply too many to ignore. Using emerging AI in legacy system migration makes the process even more intuitive. However, the value of an experienced consulting partner to provide ongoing support before, during, and after the migration process should not be underestimated.

Modernize your legacy apps and migrate them to the cloud with the help of an experienced partner for a definite competitive edge, increased efficiency, and better user experience.