Software Development
Legacy Application Modernization: 5 Best Techniques to Counter Market Forces
Changing market conditions around the globe forces companies to establish a modern and effective enterprise application environment. Be it digital transformation, social-media-analytics-cloud (SMAC), or productization, businesses IT systems must be flexible enough to respond to market forces in cost-effective ways. However, the legacy systems installed across an enterprise can’t support the accelerating pace of business change in today’s day and age. These legacy enterprise applications are built using decade-old technology, probably times when IBM mainframes were ruling the market. Every enterprise software development company today realizes the fact that it must transform its business systems with a modern technology stack, otherwise fall behind the competition. Though the ability to modernize the existing IT infrastructure depends upon its organizational culture, technical expertise, change management skills, funding availability, etc.
So, let’s discuss the five best
ways for legacy system modernization that you can apply in your business today
for reshaping company operations and staying in the market competition:
Five Approaches For Legacy System Modernization
1. The Total Transformation Approach
The total transformation approach
focuses on rebuilding the entire standard enterprise software systems from
scratch using modern technologies. Besides this, the systems built using
third-party packages or IT
consultation services providers’ assistance can also be redesigned using the
total transformation approach.
For example, a healthcare
solutions provider company can replace its traditional end-to-end claims processing system with a new claims solution. The reason for this change might be existing
systems’ inability to support the current claims market needs, existing
underlying technology going obsolete or irrelevant, and cropping of a new IT
vision in the company.
Benefits of total
transformation Approach
- This legacy application
modernization techniques assist companies in building a competitive advantage
over rivals.
- Supports future IT planning by
integrating modern technology stack and system architecture.
- Provides Maximum flexibility
during system design and architecture.
- Operational measures, KPIs, and
SLAs are well-defined under this approach.
- Technology
security loopholes in critical systems reduce significantly.
To get success with total
transformation and minimize the risks associated with the entire system change,
proper due diligence, change planning, stakeholder management, and quality
control is required. Companies must understand that the entire system functionality
is at stake and any minor quality issues can impact the business operations.
Still, this is the best option for a complete system overhaul. You can mark
this a high-risk high reward strategy in your notebooks.
2. The Gradual Replacement Approach
Under this strategy, a component
or part of an IT system is replaced with new technology and moved to the
production environment as a separate module while the remaining systems work on
the same old technology. Over time, the remaining enterprise application components
are also modernized using this strategy for the entire system to rebuild. This
strategy is typically complex to execute in-house. Taking the assistance of legacy
application modernization services providers is recommended for procuring the
best results.
Situations When Using Applying
This Strategy is Best
- You are looking to replace just a
part of the critical enterprise systems like ERP and CRM with a controlled
release of the budget.
- Only a few system components have
operational issues.
- Tight coupling b/w systems needs
to be eliminated via enterprise service bus (ESB)
- You want existing systems to
change from batch processing to real-time/online.
- You want to replace legacy
systems dumb terminals or cranky UI with an intuitive dashboard.
- You are looking to reduce the
licensing costs by switching to open-source platforms.
- You want to replace flat files or
outdated databases with a modern, leading database solution.
Also Read: 7
Techniques for Successful Legacy System Modernization
This is a low-risk strategy that
focused on touching one system element at a time for a redesign. It requires
less budget, average planning, and subtle work attention. Management bandwidth
consumption is also less and the results delivered are quick compared to total
transformation. Some of the key risks include the development of disjoint systems
not working in sync, poor integration, version control difficulty, and less
control over the tech stack of individualized enterprise applications.
3. The Duct Tape Approach
Localized, small-scale changes in
enterprise applications are addressed using new technology under this approach.
The core application architecture and technology remain the same. A popular
example could be the development of a new application to bridge the gap in the
functionality of the main app. This approach is opted by most modern-day
businesses looking to modernize their core applications. Why? Because small
changes in critical systems often deliver bigger returns compared to the entire
system overhaul.
ROI remains concrete, results are
quick, and risk is less compared to the above two approaches. Though one major downfall is that too much patchwork can lead to bad application behavior and
poor design. Cost-effectiveness and due diligence are less too which leads to throw away work.
Below is the situation when
applying this legacy application modernization technique is recommended:
- When your company plans to
continue with legacy systems by fixing existing issues using new
technologies,
- When your focus is on addressing
the current problems ASAP (as part of your KPI metrics).
- You believe stop-gap solutions
are good enough to support your modernization efforts.
- You’re facing new problems at
mid-year for which a no-extra budget is available to build a new
solution.
4. The Existing Improvement Approach
This approach targets
modernization by improving the design of existing enterprise software solutions. Enterprise application development services providers
are typically seen in action with this method, delivering suggestions for minor
design changes or code optimization to companies. For example, improving
application code maintenance by consolidating common business rules across
critical components and eliminating dead or redundant codes. Attending
immediate burning issues is possible with this approach.
Procurement of new technology or
thinking of future technology solutions is not needed here. Existing legacy
systems are trusted upon for supporting minor changes. Though, the system
lifespan is limited here with the unavailability of experienced resources in
old technology. This opens floodgates for quality issues.
The situation when applying
this legacy modernization approach is recommended include:
- Company leadership has a strong
belief in legacy systems and wants to continue with it.
- IT teams in your business are
highly skilled in old technologies and found ways for improvement.
- The technology foundation is
modern (Java/J2EE) despite applications being old.
- System design and architecture
are modernized using the existing technology to remove bottlenecks.
5. The No System Change Approach
Companies that walk down this
strategy path believe that they don’t need any modernization efforts to drive a
system change. For example, companies who have analyzed that ROI gains from
modernization is not a satisfactory refrain for a system redesign. The benefits
of this approach are pretty clear: no need for additional investment in
modernization and companies can use these funds for other strategic
tasks.
IT departments of such companies
are also free to work upon addressing IT
security vs compliance challenges. Since no specific technology decision is
taken, companies are free to choose any new technology platform they find apt.
Major risks of this approach include competitive disadvantage against market
forces, fear of falling being competition, and loss of market share.
Here are some scenarios when
you should choose this particular legacy modernization technique:
- The company has already
modernized in the past, or you are using new systems.
- You are evaluating various
modernization approaches, scope, and roadmap.
- Your company is focusing on
absorbing the recent change in leadership or company structure.
- Lack of satisfactory funds.
- Your leadership believes they don’t need a technology upgrade right now.
Bonus Strategies
5. Ring Fencing API
Though companies have used APIs for the past many years, they haven't been explored much when it comes to application modernization. However, the situation is changing now. Most software development companies have started realizing the significance of application programming interfaces in application modernization. APIs are pretty effective if you want to improve system security, facilitate real-time interactions with third-party apps, and more. Ring-fencing technique should be used in the following scenarios:
- Your senior leadership is committed to legacy systems or application usage.
- Your IT team is focusing on making small architectural and design changes in existing systems.
- You have specialized resources for full-service REST API integration in your business
- You don't have satisfactory funds for a complete system overhaul.
5. The No System Change Approach
This is one area where most companies get confused about between legacy system modernization and migration. Because it looks like a migration technique completely. Sometimes when you want to modernize your existing systems, you are required to make a shift to the modern platform to host your application. For example, moving from on-premise data storage facilities to the cloud for better data access, storage, and security. You could either switch your current host, relocate to a new platform, or both. Once the relocation is done, you should run various tests to ever
Here are some scenarios when you should choose this particular legacy modernization technique:
- When your company focus is on addressing the current challenges.
- When your company is evaluating various options for better data storage and security
- When you are ready to work with a new technology vendor.
Doing Legacy Application Modernization The Modern Way
Hope the above legacy
transformation approaches have offered you clarity about their benefits,
applicability, and demerits. Finding which approach works best for your
business depends upon your organization’s culture, requirements, risk appetite,
existing IT infrastructure, and competitive landscape - there is no single
golden piece one can recommend directly.
If you are also looking to
modernize your existing legacy system, consult with our enterprise
application modernization services specialists here at A3logics. Our EAM
specialists have a decade long-experience in recommending personalized
strategies and a forward-looking modernization plan to businesses of all
kinds.
Drop us a line to have a free consultation with our EAI specialists about your legacy modernization needs.
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