It is the age of digital transformation, and if you are still questioning whether to go for app modernization or not! You are living under a rock. As you can see, everything is affected by it around us, and we can’t deny it. Let me tell you, it isn’t going to slow down either. At the same time, legacy systems may be dragging you backward because every business needs digital transformation now more than ever.
However, sticking to your old ways of doing everything only blocks your firm’s agility to meet the market’s demands and contemporary solutions, reinforcing competitive lead. Along with everything, the microcosm of software development is going through the same. So, businesses also need speedy development approaches (desperate times, desperate measures) if they want their services and products to market rapidly. One needs to be in the competition and relevant to the marketplace.
Don’t you think it is time to do something? Because you wouldn’t want your company to fall backward while everybody is taking steps to transform their business. What are you waiting for? It would help if you had an agency to pull you up and get you back on track. While selecting an agency, ensure they can provide you with what your firm needs. Opt for the agencies providing digital transformation or app modernization services with expertise in re-engineering technology like MMCGBL.
Here in this blog, you will find out about app modernization! What is it? Why do you need to modernize your app? But first, we will see what app modernization is, so let’s start with it.
What is app modernization?
It is referred to as legacy app modernization when you take your existing app and update its infrastructure, architecture, and features. However, let’s talk about the benefits of app modernization. You can say that it can generally be used to enhance the pace of the latest feature distribution, revealing the capability of current programs so that they may be accessed via API by external businesses.
Replatforming apps from on-premises to cloud for application scalability, speed, and long-term information center and IT strategies. Usually, the costs and difficulty of application modernization are the biggest obstacles. Apps should not be moved from on-premises to the cloud only for the sake of transferring them.
In contrast, numerous applications may gain significantly from a single switch or rearchitecting but are so tightly integrated with current architecture and systems that the burden of modernization may overshadow the benefits.
As with most issues, the secret to application modernization achievement is a strategy and choosing ventures where the advantages of the cloud, velocity, efficiency, size, latest feature development, etc., are such that allow the current application a concrete route to enhanced user experience and Return.
Read More: A Complete Guide On Legacy Application Modernization – All You Need To Know
6 strategies to modernize your legacy apps
Every organization should undertake seven-step legacy app modernization strategies while selecting the best modernization approach.
Legacy system evaluation
If your legacy app system is not contributing to your business in this modern landscape or is the roadblock to your success, it needs modification. Similarly, modernization is necessary if any application is pumping up the entire cost of ownership or you sense an undue risk.
Point out the problem
If it’s not serving your organizational or IT needs, it’s time for you to filter the problem further. It implies that you need to find out what is actually causing difficulty for your customers or employees. There’s a need to target users’ stories specifically.
But, you should also find out about what is serving well in the legacy system or what does not need a change. When you know what works and what doesn’t, it is going to be easier for you to decide on the modernization approach.
Assess your modification options
Once you know that your legacy applications are in dire need of modernization and you see where the problem resides, your next move is to determine how you would be modernizing them. There are seven approaches through which you can update your app:
- Retain A minimal risk method of incorporating legacy application elements into a new design. The legacy program is encased or coated, and an API is used to reach it as a service. This method also allows for gradually growing the program using a microservices strategy.
- Rehost: It entails “lifting and shimmying” application elements to other infrastructure with no (or little) changes. Moving an app from an on-premises system to the cloud is frequently the quickest method.
- Replatform: This method transfers the current code to a revamped platform with a few restructuring while keeping the existing code’s structure, attributes, and functionalities.
- Refactor: Refactoring goes beyond optimizing the code and making structural modifications to the code (restructuring) to reduce some of the technical debt that causes problems with legacy software and may include out-of-date libraries, frameworks, and regulations or unfinished or ineffective functionality.
- Rearchitect: Rearchitecting entails making large code changes in order to move a legacy program to a more advanced framework.
- Rebuild: Redesign or rebuild the program from zero, but keep the structure and requirements the same.
- Replace: If a legacy system stops functioning for several business objectives, it’s relevant to reconvene, analyze the issue, and identify the best product to address it. The legacy app will be retired with this strategy, and a thorough product development strategy will be used.
The select app modernization approach
In order to select from the options mentioned above, apart from effort and impact, you can assess your choices regarding them:
- Working load
- Architecture
- Cost for modernization as well as continued operation
- Risk
- Operations
- Security
The importance of each of them will revolve around their precedence for every company. However, the competition and altering customers’ demands can also contribute to the value of each and every approach.
Be ready for future growth and alterations
No firm functions in a void; they are also going through continuous change in a competitive marketplace, economic environment, and the chances of technological advancement. The average lifetime of any app is normally 6 to 8 years.
Today’s legacy system is inflexible, making it difficult for organizations to update their applications. The digital age we live in requires significant agility to launch the latest features and capabilities to maintain balance. When selecting the right modernization approach, you are actually choosing the greatest adaptability to alter things when needed.
Ensure you researched well while selecting your partner
Organizations often do not build or modify applications all the time or, let’s say; it’s not included in their priority list. Your team may not have the required expertise to fit into the new environment and need the training to use the latest system. So, would it be possible to have enough means to make all the right decisions?
For this purpose, several companies count on a credible software partner to help them in modernization projects. Find a group that utilizes Agile and DevOps principles for your modernization program to maximize time-to-market.
Important reasons why you need app modernization
Yes! There was a time when legacy applications were enough for businesses, but now the situation is different. If you are still relying on the legacy system, that could be the reason your company is not profiting or gaining any kind of benefit. Below are some important reasons why you need app modernization.
- Advancements in your technology can provide you with competitive dominance. Remember that you won’t need them just for your company’s prosperity but also to compete. Because you know that everybody nowadays is going for the digital business transformation as it became a necessity of this time.
- Having advanced technology can provide better opportunities for future growth, whereas outdated technology could be the reason hindering competence. The effort you would want to maintain your existing system could be better served by creating new approaches.
- You will be provided with better security measures as it is one of the most important elements of digital transformation. We all know that security systems advance continuously, and legacy systems are easier become the victim of cyber attacks. So, isn’t it better than legacy systems?
- As the customers see a modification in technology, their demand and expectations increase as time passes. They could tell the difference between your legacy or modified systems even if they were not directly engaged with your legacy apps.
- As the cost of maintaining legacy apps is not apparent, businesses often get confused about how much it would cost them. Maintaining outdated apps can be a waste of money and effort, so why not spend them on other things such as advancing obsolete technology.
Lead drivers for app modernization
Saving expenses
If you are still using legacy apps, you would know it comes with several obvious expenses and some unrevealed ones too. The most obvious among all is maintaining legacy apps, as you know how difficult it will get to maintain them as time passes and new modifications and technologies will arise. These apps may consume more time and effort than you could have spent on developing a modernizing strategy.
Some companies spend huge amounts maintaining outdated apps; even half of their IT budget goes to keep legacy tech working. And it doesn’t stop there; the budget will keep rising as time passes. Additionally, finding people familiar with your legacy system won’t be easy when the old workers retire.
However, there’s also a cost that we don’t discuss: the competitive advantage you lack over your competitors. You outlook so much on the enhancement of the corporate earning, productivity, and efficiency that contemporary digital technologies provide. It is the drawback of sticking to outdated, antiqued solutions.
Rapid alterations pace
It makes sense that modernization would enable you to adapt more quickly and reduce your time to market, as outdated technology is restricting your technological capabilities. One benefit of investing less in legacy IT upkeep is that you’ll have much more money for development. In exchange, getting access to cutting-edge technologies allows you to outperform your rivals and draw in and keep loyal customers.
Enhanced scalability and shared processing
The process of app modernization allows you to be more scalable and facilitate shared processing. Many firms are particularly engaged in fragmenting and separating their single unified legacy apps into linked microservices. The flexibility of this strategy is quite advantageous.
Every microservice is more manageable since it is shorter. Unlike an unyielding centralized program, when one microservice breaks down, the remaining application is less expected to be negatively impacted.
Liberation from confining IT
A big driver for app modernization efforts is the need to be freed from constrictive IT and software licensing. Most businesses get weighed down and stuck with processes and systems buried within old technology. For instance, 76 percent of firms claim to have information locked up in antiquated systems that prevent them from connecting to cloud computing.
Updating your old programs can frequently free you from these restraints and offer additional options for developing your IT ecosystem. The old .NET Framework is only compatible with Windows and is private. But if we talk about .Net core, it is an open source which implies that any user can make modifications in their source code to meet their needs.
Read More: 5 Ways An IT Consultant Can Help Your Business
Legacy App Modernization FAQs:
Question: Do you have skilled people on staff to maintain the modified application?
Answer: Yes! At MMCGBL, you will find staff with expertise in the field. You will be provided with quality work and app maintenance.
Question: What are the business risks of not modernizing?
Answer: According to one report, organizations that have modernized their IT legacy systems could see a 13% decrease in their entire operational cost. The same study also reveals that around 14% of potential return boost. It implies that organizations that aren’t prioritizing their legacy application modernization may be operating at a higher cost.
Question: What are the other two crucial elements of application modernization?
Answer: Agencies must implement four essential elements of IT modernization in order to fulfill their objectives: cloud computing, shared services, data center consolidation, and Agile development.
Conclusion
Although many organizations are quite well on their road to undergoing a digital transformation, modernizing outdated applications continues to be a challenge. Caused by a lack of understanding or a hurried discovery phase, 75 percent of legacy system modernization initiatives fall short of their completion goals.
Because modernizing legacy applications and undergoing digital transformation could be challenging, you should work with a collaborator you can rely on and who has a track record of performance. It would be best if you had a clear plan to implement legacy app modernization, no matter why you want to.