This is the age of innovations and upgrades. For businesses, not keeping up with the latest trends will most likely lead to stagnation and even failure.
App modernization is an important field that you need to consider. Every serious IT company needs to prioritize modernization if progress is its main priority.
To accelerate innovation, IT businesses need to use more efficient tools, come up with new strategies and methods, and modernize as many processes as possible.
You should start looking for ways to implement modernization and resources that can help you do that. Fortunately, this post from Prolifics takes you step by step through the process of application modernization.
However, if you are not so familiar with application modernization, it would be best to first read this article and learn the basics.
What is application modernization precisely?
Application modernization refers to the process of taking the structure of existing legacy software and modernizing the infrastructure so that it is up-to-date and can meet a business’s current needs.
The process varies from case to case. To be precise, it all depends on the number of features that need to be changed.
That is why the process can range from invasive and involve heavy re-coding to being non-invasive by directly linking an app through a modern cloud service or web-based front-end.
These are some forms of application modernization:
- Moving data into the cloud
- Moving data off of a legacy data center
- Updating legacy applications
- Refactoring monolithic applications into micro services
Key technologies used in application modernization
There are numerous technological components involved in the modernization process. The most prominent ones are listed below.
Containers and Kubernetes
These technologies were designed to allow developers to create consistent and scalable applications across various environments. This kind of flexibility brings benefits to organizations that are advancing in the cloud.
Serverless computing
Serverless computing refers to a cloud-based model that executes functions off-premises in the cloud but does not eliminate the need for a server. This technological method outsources software code to the cloud provider, which then runs based on individual reports.
Refactoring a Monolith into Microservices
Due to architectural reasons, monolithic applications are often difficult to update. The components of an application are packed together, and it becomes difficult and expensive to add features due to the complexity of the integrations.
Additionally, monolithic applications are expensive to scale. Scaling the entire application can really come with a myriad of challenges and may result in more complications.
On the other hand, when companies transform monolithic applications into microservices, processes become simpler and more efficient.
Benefits of application modernization
Now, let’s take a look at how application modernization empowers new ideas, workflows, and processes. Ultimately, this leads to significant business innovation.
Accelerating innovation
In today’s competitive digital economy, entering the market quickly is quite essential.
According to a Forrester report, enterprises will move beyond cheap fixes and seek innovative app services to modernize their businesses. Cloud accelerates application development, enabling developers to go to market faster with new products, services, or capabilities.
Hence, focusing on application modernization translates to updating your business processes. Once you rethink processes, you can rebuild applications in new ways, breaking them up in different components that can connect to the customer faster.
Modernizing applications
When a developer creates applications for the cloud, they focus on modern design models such as:
- Function as a Service (FaaS) allows developers to focus on the design, running, and management of applications without focusing on building and maintaining back-end infrastructure.
- Containers are tools for packaging, distributing, and running applications. Containers have benefits such as speed, portability, availability, and simplicity.
- Microservices are an architectural style of breaking up larger software chunks into smaller code pieces. In turn, the code can run in an isolated way, meaning individual parts of code can run independently of one another. As a result, a more agile workflow can be achieved.
- Event stream processing allows systems to detect and adjust to business events in data streams automatically. It also improves the management of numerous data elements that are not stored in a persistent database.
What can you lose if you do not modernize legacy applications or platforms?
If the benefits listed above were not enough to convince you that modernization should be a priority, in this section you can read about some of the detrimental effects that can happen as a consequence of not taking modernization seriously.
Losing customers
If a business is not willing to provide their customers with the latest applications, it can face serious issues.
If you fail to deliver the latest applications, and your rivals do not make the same mistake, customers will turn to your competitors. Additionally, once a customer develops the habit of using advanced tech, there is no way that they will settle for anything less than that.
Wasting money
In the long run, migration is needed for the survival of legacy applications. For a short period, it may be okay to invest a particular sum of money in maintenance. But don’t be shortsighted. Instead, see the bigger picture now and save money for later.
No vendor support
A well-known example in the context of software development is Oracle ending the support for Java SE 8 and inline. Google pushed the Kotlin programming language for Android application development rather than Java.
In both scenarios, companies using Java programming language needed to take adequate measures to modernize their legacy systems.
Slower innovation
When a business uses multiple legacy software to manage its business processes, they unknowingly create data silos that are hardly accessible. In turn, access to insight generated from the data becomes non-existent. Ultimately, this weakens decision-making processes within a business.
Summary: Do you need legacy application modernization?
An organization needs application modernization, mainly when the software does not perform as expected. If your software consumes too much time to load or perform even the primary tasks for which it has been created, it’s time to think about modernization.
Use this checklist to figure out if your business software application needs legacy modernization:
- Software can’t keep up with the new challenges.
- Software is running on outdated technologies.
- It lacks flexibility.
- It is not scalable and does not support expansion or new capabilities.
- Software is vulnerable to cyber-security threats.
- Maintenance costs are high.
If your current software has some of these characteristics, it is time to consider modernizing it.
So, consult a good development company or hire a developer and get started with application modernization. Analyze the challenges you are facing and choose the best approach to resolve the issues.
