Modernize Legacy Systems: All You Should Know

Customer behavior evolves, solidifying the need for new, hyper-personalized software.

Global business IT spending has grown by 4% in 2021 due to the pandemic crisis and the need for automation. And that is why businesses have to take the reins and initiate an application modernization strategy to reset their processes.

But how do we modernize legacy systems? And is legacy application modernization about getting your IT stack up-to-date? Let’s find out.

Why does Your Project Need Modernization?

Before helping you choose the right approach to modernize your legacy systems, let’s learn the fundamentals. A legacy system is any software or data that has been in use for a long time, with significant changes to accommodate new requirements and features. Legacy systems are often built on outdated programming languages or platforms and may have components that no longer work with upgrades or replacements. In simple words, this is an IT system that fails to match the modern rhythm.

Why should your company bother with legacy application modernization? Well, there are some solid reasons for that. First of all, a system update can help you save money. In some cases, you may even be able to eliminate an entire department or streamline employees’ workloads so that they can complete their daily tasks more efficiently and with less confusion.

Also, replacing legacy code will open up new computing power for your application wrapped in the latest technologies. By shifting to the cloud, for example, you can host your data in a secure and performant environment. Cloud migration also helps you accrue Machine Learning and Big Data capabilities.

A thorough application modernization strategy is also crucial to safeguard your data and keep hackers at bay. Increased agility is also a major benefit of software modernization. Since some legacy systems cannot handle flexibility and deployment speed, legacy application modernization can reinvigorate your business processes.

Overall, modernization allows business owners to secure their software as a strategic asset and gain a competitive edge in the market.

Top 5 Steps of Application Modernization Systems

Giving your tech infrastructure a rehaul cannot be done overnight. It should be a marathon-like process that factors in all crucial components and takes care of salient steps. In particular, we recommend shaping your legacy system replacement strategy around five main steps. Let’s have a closer look at them.

Choose Business-Critical Applications

First of all, your legacy system modernization strategies should be based on specific legacy software that delivers crucial value to your business. Start by listing value-added ones to evaluate the potential pay-off you can get with your legacy modernization approach. Flash out their specifics, monthly costs, limitations, and other differentiators. This will help you and the stakeholders assess the entire scope of your application landscape and lay the ground for further actions.

Analyze the assets at hand

Application modernization requires upfront investment linked with development services, software fees, and potential staff training. So before rolling out your legacy application modernizations, look into the available resources to estimate the total. You might already have proficient talent that can assess the disruption your modernization can cause and how it is linked with other networks.

Decide how modernization will be approached

Legacy system modernization approaches can range from fundamental reconstruction to incremental changes. In the first case, your infrastructure can get away with new functionality that helps maintain business continuity. In the second scenario, you will need a full-stack team of specialists to retool your software.

In general, you will have the following options:

• Rearchitect or rewrite your application – changing specific parts but preserving the original scope.
• Replacing – getting rid of outdated software and swapping it for a new one.
• Replatform – migrating it to a new runtime platform.

The right migration way should be chosen by either a third-party consultant or an in-house specialist with suitable knowledge.

Modernize

Next, you should identify the metrics that will determine success and conduct a risk assessment, since your software is critical for business processes.

Once you have decided on how profound your changes will be, it’s time to click the clapper board. If your internal resources lack suitable talent, contact a provider for hands-on experience in app modernization and the right tech stack.

Monitor performance

Remember to keep an eye on the KPIs once you’ve started the modernization process. Meanwhile, keep in touch with your team and other users of the software you’re updating to provide timely support and ensure a perfect match with your business needs. Security of your customer’s data and that of your business should also be at the top of your mind when shifting to a new platform.

Things to Include in Your Modernization Strategy

Not all modernization strategies are created equal. Most of the time, it’s your business needs and market tendencies that impact the overall renovation route. But although business requirements need a personal approach, technological trends stay the same for everyone. Let’s have a look at those core technologies that make up for the lion’s share of modernization strategies.

Cloud computing

The cloud is no longer just for startups and tech giants, but for any business with a need for flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. But before you start mining your data for gold in the cloud, you should be aware of what cloud migration is, how to do it and the costs involved.

Migration involves moving a company’s application or data to a public, private, or hybrid cloud. It’s a complex, time-consuming process that requires careful planning and coordination between all parties involved.

Cloud containers

On the same note, containers can help advance your app modernization journey. You can consider packaging apps inside containers, securing more
portable applications across the cloud.

Cloud containers are extremely powerful because they allow companies to scale their computing power without scaling the hardware. Cloud containers make it easy for businesses to handle seasonal or peak hour traffic without much risk because they can easily be turned off during low seasons.

Microservices

The concept behind microservices is centered around autonomy and flexibility. Microservice-based applications are made up of individual components that each perform a specific function, communicating with other services through APIs and protocols.

Microservice architecture has many benefits for application scalability and strong fault tolerance. The migration of a big monolithic application to a microservice architecture will help businesses to drive down costs and ramp up operational efficiency.

Automation

As a result of the pandemic-induced lockdowns, businesses are now driven by a single need for automation. That is mainly because businesses with a modernized application have a better chance of automating apps that have already been deployed to the cloud. Therefore, making your application more autonomous is an important modernization trend as well.

Orchestration

Software development orchestration aids in the automation of various operational processes associated with various containers, such as networking, scaling, and deployment. Container orchestration solves the problem by automating the planning, deployment, scalability, load balancing, availability, and organization of container networks. It automates and manages the container and services lifecycle, thus being a logical follow-up of the cloud migration and cornerstone of AI-driven operations.

The Final Word

Legacy software can be tricky to update, incurring unexpected costs and performance bottlenecks. However, by choosing the right modernization strategy and a well-versed team of professionals you can migrate your outdated application to new, more performant platforms.

We, at Devox Software, assist global businesses in preparing their tech assets for the digital world. By thoroughly analyzing your business needs, we ensure long-term value retention and increase your agility by offering a full range of migration and integration services.