Digital transformation requires being proactive. Modernizing applications and software is an integral part of any digital transformation.
Legacy software and technology can limit the ability of your company to provide a digitally-first experience for users and improve business operations.
The entire enterprise IT sector shares the sentiment. A study conducted among 800 senior IT executives in global companies found that 80% believe failing to upgrade applications and IT infrastructure would negatively impact their businesses long-term growth.
Organizations transitioning successfully from outdated infrastructure to modernized technologies can expect an increase of 14% in annual revenue.
They are better positioned to benefit from the next stage of technological evolution. According to a recent report, technologies- everything from artificial intelligence and blockchain to gene editing and nanotechnologies- are expected to reach $3.2 trillion by 2025.
Ninety percent of businesses cannot increase efficiency and innovate due to old technology. Over half of senior executives in IT believe their companys inability in the digital era is partly due to outdated technology.
By leveraging legacy software modernization, organizations can achieve their digital transformation goals by receiving expert guidance and support.
We are a company that provides services for software modernization. These include assessing legacy applications, identifying improvements, and developing and implementing strategies.
What Is Software Modernization?
The software modernization process involves updating the software to consider changes in business, technology, or user preferences.
This can include changing the code to reflect the latest best practices, porting to a different platform, or adding new functionality.
Software modernization is necessary for software to stay relevant. As technology evolves, the software needs to change to be compatible.
Software must also be updated as new business processes and workflows are developed. The software must be updated as user preferences evolve to offer a better experience. Check out this case study on software modernization if you need some inspiration.
It explains how we modernized an old software application using best practices and the latest technology.
It is transitioning existing software functionality or old-fashioned IT infrastructure to an environment that meets current IT landscape requirements.
Moving an enterprise IT system from the traditional data center model that relies on mainframes to one rich in microservices and containerized applications can be a good example.
Cloud vs. Mainframe
This is not to say every business needs to migrate to the cloud. Mainframes, for instance, continue to be important for many businesses.
Although many industries move workloads and data storage to the cloud to save money, this is only true for some workloads or data sets.
Many companies worldwide still rely on software from 30 to 60 years ago for their core processes. The majority of companies will keep their critical business processes running on mainframes.
The Survey of over 1,000 IT directors and professionals confirms this:
- 90% of respondents view the mainframe platform as an opportunity for long-term growth
- Over half of the data in 67% of large shops are stored on the mainframe.
Software Modernization: Three Options
You can select from three different options when deciding whether or not to upgrade your software and apps:
- Rewrite: Migration of the code to a newer development language. It is possible to underestimate both the costs and the time required, so this option can often become an endless story.
- Replace: Replace the old system with a brand new one. This usually means building an entirely new ecosystem of applications using semi-off-the-shelf parts that mirror or mimic some functionality from your current systems. It usually adds complexity but only achieves 100% functionality.
- Reuse: You can make a legacy application more mobile by converting it into a portable system that remote users and sites can use. If applicable, this option allows for a gradual approach in which changes are tested and refined.
Knowing the pros and cons is vital before deciding on the best path for modernization. It would help if you also had a good idea of the current situation and future goals.
What Are Legacy Systems, And How Do They Undermine Your Businesss Success?
It is easiest to describe a legacy system as a system that does not work as intended. The performance of the system is what matters most, not its age.
Technologies indeed become outdated over time. However, if poorly executed, even yesterdays solutions can be legacy solutions tomorrow. A system like this cannot meet your business goals.
It may have been challenging to maintain, slow down the user experience, and be hard to support.
The system is not working for you, and its flaws already affect your business. This is when legacy software needs to be modernized.
In addition to poor performance, maintaining legacy systems is expensive. If you do not opt to modernize legacy software, several expenses could drain your budget:
- Support and maintenance In just five years, the costs of maintaining a system can exceed the development cost.
- Integrating and complying with regulations. Regulations are updated annually, and non-compliance can cost millions of dollars in fines.
- Most businesses are concerned about outdated security protocols. A business that updates its security protocols could retain millions.
- A lack of innovation can impact your long-term business profitability. Losing business will occur if you cannot adapt to changing market standards, such as customer demand, safety standards, and quality standards.
- Inability to adapt and improve efficiency. Automation and modernization of processes can increase efficiency by up to 50%.
- The reputation of the brand. No one likes old software. The software is slow, crashes, and looks awful. Software that is performing poorly can damage the reputation of your company.
The longer you wait to modernize legacy software, the harder it is for your business to run on an old system. Many businesses have been using legacy software for many years.
However, red flags may already be appearing everywhere. What are the red flags, and how can you tell when its time to modernize your software? Lets see.
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Modernizing Your Software Has Many Benefits
When you use old software to support your business, it can increase your risks, your costs, and your agility. Lets examine the benefits that come with modernizing your software and apps.
Minimizing Obsolescence
- Losing Control: Having a piece of your core business relies on code written in an "old-school" programming language is not good business. You need someone who can maintain the code today, even if youve had it for years.
- No Support: No support for hardware or operating systems is not a situation that any manager would want to find themselves in.
- It Needs To Be Included: Support infrastructure is no longer available. Some older softwares backup policies and processes depended on the hardware backup or logic inbuilt into a specific backup solution or product. The backup solution has likely been discontinued, making restores impossible.
Reduce Costs
- It Is Selecting The Less Serious Problem: Its likely that a legacy system still exists and is playing an essential role in your companys core business. It is often expensive to replace a legacy system from both an investment and operational standpoint. Consider the damage that a system that is not working could cause. Even though it may be cheaper to do nothing in the short term, you could not work for a long time, mainly if your hardware or operating systems are not supported.
- OpEx And CapEx: Old systems may require using obsolete components such as hard drives, memory, or backup tapes. It could also mean hiring high-priced contractors who have specialized knowledge.
Increased Agility
- Responsiveness: Some legacy systems could be slowing down application responsiveness as digital systems are under more pressure to support business-critical processes and customers. You should determine if the problem is an input/output or processing issue.
- Business Cycle: To compete in todays marketplace, you need the flexibility and speed to respond quickly to unexpected demand or introduce new features. Some legacy systems and older technologies may need help to provide the flexibility and speed required to deploy new code quickly.
The Integration Of Technology
- It is growing both in the number of platforms (social networks and mobile) and in the complexity of components of IT landscapes - cloud, hybrid, and data centers on-premises. The ability to integrate "plugins" agilely is a crucial competitive advantage for businesses and is often hindered by legacy systems.
Minimizing Non-Alignment
- The Law: Some legislation and market regulations may require an existing program to be migrated to meet new requirements. For example, GDPR or privacy legislation could make you migrate to a platform with the features you require.
- Market: Modernizing software is also driven by the need to compete. The nature of upstart competitors is that they are not burdened by old systems and processes or technical debt. They can therefore be more agile. Suppose the competition is gaining a competitive advantage by using more efficient business tools. In that case, its time to act quickly.
Why Do You Need A Legacy Software Modernization Solution?
Legacy software may become less valuable as business and technology evolve. Getting support for old operating systems or hardware can be difficult and expensive, and it can take a long time to create and implement new functionality and features.
Our software modernization services can address these problems, making legacy software more efficient.
Modernizing legacy software allows you to keep pace with changes in business and technology and still benefit from the knowledge and experience contained in the software.
There are many advantages to modernizing legacy software, among them:
Maintenance
Maintenance of legacy software requires significant time and resources. These costs will only increase. Most legacy systems were built using monolithic architectures, so its only possible to change individual components by changing the whole system.
This requires more resources.
The lack of modularity in many legacy systems makes it impossible to streamline the maintenance process, make changes, modify specific functionality, and scale project elements that require it most.
It may be necessary to update your software even if it already has multiple modules. Microservices are the next step in evolving functionalities into simple and self-sufficient components that do not require maintenance.
This architectural design allows autonomous services to be created, deployed, and maintained independently from other system components without impacting the system.
Enhanced Security
Modernizing legacy software can help improve the overall security posture of a company. Upgrade to the most recent security technology to help protect your company assets and data from possible threats.
It can help the business to feel secure and safeguard its future.
You endanger your customers data if you rely on old security systems. You can ensure the safety of your clients by using current security software.
Using our legacy software modernization service will help keep critical applications safe. Our team of security experts can identify security risks and implement controls that will keep data secure.
Our team of experts can help upgrade legacy systems to meet the most recent security standards.
Easy Integrations
Modernizing your system can simplify integration with existing and new technologies. It can reduce your IT infrastructures complexity and allow you to connect applications and services efficiently.
What do the numbers tell us? In the IT and Business Report, 49% of companies cite that modernization is a great way to improve the customers experience.
Benefits include integrating new technologies (46%), reducing operational costs (45%), and streamlining operations. Only 1% of companies implementing modernization programs claim they have yet to experience any benefits.
Read More: Learn the Essentials of Software Development in 2023
Modernizing Your Business Can Be Risky
It may appear logical to modernize legacy systems, especially when they are several decades old. Modernize them, and you will become more productive.
We know that "If its not broken, dont repair it" is a good rule of thumb. However, Research cautions against moving from legacy systems. This could cost more money and compromise quality.
Move cautiously before launching into a massive modernization project that will affect every company process. Reports recommends that organizations who are considering modernization projects start by following these guidelines:
- Focus On Something Other Than Perceptions But Instead On Business Requirements And Capabilities: Words such as "fragile," "legacy," or favorite term, "traditional," can carry negative connotations that may lead decision-makers to modernize when its not necessary.
- Conduct An Audit Of Existing Platforms And Business Processes: Focusing on any misalignments between the requirements for your company and what platforms can deliver. Dont assume that you need to change anything. Instead, start with what you have.
- Calculate The Total Cost Of Ownership: Which includes the cost of transitioning to a new system and the cost associated with dependencies. Focusing on the business requirements and total cost of ownership will help organizations prioritize projects to maximize business value while minimizing risk.
Cost considerations for such a change need to extend beyond the current CapEx of the old system and the expected OpEx for a new one.
Business owners should also consider the following:
- Order changes cost.
- Cost of operating multiple systems at the same time during any transition.
- Costs of Training.
- New security risks.
It is essential to approach the problem from an entrepreneurial perspective:
- Competent Ability
- Backlog in change request requests
- Business workflow friction
- When failure occurs
5 Steps For Legacy Software Modernization
Some critical steps can be taken to manage the process successfully, regardless of the reasons for modernizing legacy software.
First, It is crucial to understand how the system is currently used in the company. Understanding the data structure, the dependencies, and the business processes supported by the software is essential.
It can be risky to move forward without the help of experts who specialize in modernizing legacy software. You need to know a lot about your systems technical debt and performance bottlenecks.
Our specialists are available for a complimentary consultation to help you understand the big picture.
The next step is to evaluate the platform target and determine any gaps between the existing system and the platform target.
After identifying these gaps, it is possible to create a plan for addressing them. The plan must include technical and non-technical aspects, like training users and documentation. It is also essential to thoroughly test any new system before it goes into production.
These steps can help organizations modernize outdated software without disrupting operations or incurring significant costs. Here are some critical strategies for modernizing old software.
1. Architecture Audit
When modernizing your software, the high-level audit of components and functionality is a great place to begin. The software modernization audit is part of our service.
It helps identify system bottlenecks and risks. We recommend the most appropriate approach to modernize legacy software based on customer requirements.
2. Code Audit
An audit of your code can reveal any flaws or vulnerabilities. It will also help identify future threats. You can fix any errors in your code and improve the security of it.
This will help you avoid future problems. You can perform code audits manually or use automated tools. They can help you save time, money, and headaches.
Support for technical applications also needs to be provided. To add new features, fix issues, and integrate an application in new environments, nearly half the time spent maintaining the application goes to reading already written code.
Therefore, the old code must be cleaned up during modernization to allow applications to be expanded and modified.
3. Refactoring
The application modernization tool refactoring modifies the underlying structure of an applications code to make it more transparent and straightforward without changing the result.
The approach simplifies, systematizes, and structures disordered debugging code and enhances the performance of applications.
For small projects, refactoring is a great option. Refactoring can also involve rewriting the software. It is an excellent option for larger projects requiring you to make significant changes or use new technology.
4. Performance Testing
Performance testing has as its primary objective to test the stability of an application, determine how it performs, measure resource usage, and assess other attributes such as quality.
These tests allow the detection and prioritization of application components to be scaled up during the modernization process and also the task performance requirements of the modernized systems.
To choose the most effective approach for modernizing legacy systems, you must evaluate the impact of each modernization method on the following factors: technology, architecture and functionality, costs, and risks.
By selecting the best transformation strategy, you can manage core business processes strategically and benefit fully from modernizing legacy applications.
5. Quality Assurance
Automated unit tests are becoming more critical as software grows in complexity. Unit tests ensure that the code works correctly and that any changes do not break functionality.
Automated tests provide immediate feedback on the status of code.
Without automated unit testing, it would be impossible to determine if an existing bug has been corrected or introduced by a code change.
Unit tests automate, ensuring that code changes do not introduce new bugs and that existing issues have been fixed. Software modernization should also include automated unit testing. Unit tests are a vital part of quality assurance.
Software Modernization Strategies
Software modernization is not a one-size fits all solution. However, there are several approaches organizations can take to upgrade their legacy systems.
They include:
Microservices: Breaking Monolithic Applications Into Microservices
Monolithic systems are usually legacy applications. Due to this, it can be challenging to update the application components - whether you are adding new functionality or scalability in a section where its most needed.
A system component in a monolithic architectural design cannot be changed independently. The system structure cannot be changed without changing the unit of functionality.
Modernization includes replacing monolithic software with modular applications to improve flexibility.
Cloud Based Integration
Cloud computing provides many advantages, including the capability to continuously integrate and implement new features during the modernization of legacy applications.
As the name implies, continuous integration allows code to be continuously merged into the core.
A developer uploads only the application part and the unit tests, as previously mentioned, to verify that the code is performing the desired functions.
It is vital to upgrade legacy applications using CI/CD. This will make future updates and support more accessible.
Reverse-Engineering
Youll likely be dealing with outdated documentation or none if you work on an older IT project. Reverse engineering is necessary in such situations.
The reverse engineering process allows you to discover previously unknown features of an application that may be helpful in the future.
Software Modernization: Popular Methods
Modernizing can be done in many ways. In reality, many approaches and methods have been developed:
- ADM (Architecture Driven Modernization): ADM (Architecture Driven Modernization) relies on supporting infrastructure to reduce the complexity of modernization. One great example is virtualization.
- SABA Framework: SABA Framework requires planning for the organization and technical impact. It is an enterprise-friendly best practice.
- Model for Reverse Engineering: Model for Reverse Engineering is a long and expensive project, which technologys pace can hamper.
- Visaggio's Decision Model (VDM): It is a decision-making model that aims to find the best software renewal process for each case by combining technological and economic aspects.
- An Economic Model To Software Rewriting And Replacement Times (SRRT): The VDM model is similar to that mentioned above.
- DevOps Contribution: DevOps focuses on allowing rapid deployment of new software releases with an absolute minimum degree of bugs or errors in complete compliance with the target operational IT environments. It is a crucial enabler to accelerate Legacy Modernization.
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The Bottom Line
Modernizing outdated software is a significant investment that any company can make to remain competitive in the market today.
Legacy system upgrades have many benefits: reduced costs, shorter timelines, and higher returns on investment. The process of updating outdated software can take time and effort.
Many software development company can keep you up to date with the latest software.
You can get the latest security patches and software updates from them, or they may help you upgrade to a newer software version if necessary. The best strategy for modernizing legacy software depends on the type of help you need and what youre trying to achieve.
Our comprehensive end-to-end service will help you save time, money, and resources.
You have found the best place to look for software modernization contracts. We specialize in helping businesses upgrade to the latest software.
Modifying an existing program or creating a brand-new application may be necessary. Learn more about our services to help transform legacy applications. Contact us today to learn how modernizing your application could improve your business.
