Partner Logo
Organizations that leverage app modernization improve technological performance, enhance the customer experience, and accelerate speed-to-market.
Your software systems and programs may have been modern when first implemented, but could be experiencing the challenges of keeping pace with emerging technologies. That’s where application modernization can help! The innovative process updates existing apps to a cloud-first model, sometimes called “legacy modernization”. There are a few strategies to consider.
One strategy is to start from scratch, which means building or buying new apps that are compatible with the current technology stack available. This approach can be costly, time-consuming, and challenges will always persist. Remember, any new application can be outperformed by its technology ecosystem.
One strategy is to start from scratch, which means building or buying new apps that are compatible with the current technology stack available. This approach can be costly, time-consuming, and challenges will always persist. Remember, any new application can be outperformed by its technology ecosystem.
Another strategy is to modernize your current apps which is often the more practical approach. Instead of one full migration, many organizations prefer to modernize in stages. For example, they start by moving apps from on-premises datacenters to the cloud in a "lift and shift" migration, taking advantage of the basic benefits of cloud computing. From there, they can leverage more advanced modernization techniques like enhancing capabilities and implementing best practices.
When organizations aren’t forced to devote extra resources to app infrastructure and maintenance, they can focus on innovating. Cloud-based tools and services streamline the development process, resulting in faster speed-to-market.
Modernizing apps strategically positions your organization to be compatible with current technologies. One of the biggest advantages is your apps will continue to evolve with the technology. This streamlined approach also provides reliable, timely updates delivering app agility. Considering enabling automatic scaling can help reduce costs as demand fluctuates.
With a cloud-first approach, built-in updates and security capabilities help safeguard workloads. Other built-in capabilities include task automation for high availability, disaster recovery, backups, and performance monitoring.
When done strategically, it can be most efficient to modernize your existing apps rather than start from scratch. This allows organizations to focus on growth and use their resources for other impactful initiatives. App modernization also can retain processes and maintain business continuity so you don’t need to introduce new apps.
When organizations decide to modernize their applications, a major decision is how to tackle such an enormous initiative. There are several ways to approach application modernization. We have provided a brief overview below.
This approach is fast and often targets lowering reliance on private datacenters. Companies faced with a hardware refresh find the cloud’s elastic pricing and provider-based management attractive. However, little or no functionality is added to the application.
Replatforming apps to take advantage of cloud capabilities, like autoscaling, can be tricky. Organizations also can be vulnerable to unexpected and unwelcomed surprises that will impact stability and performance.
Refactoring apps to take advantage of new approaches like microservices can be time-consuming and lacking a comprehensive set of best practices. In addition, this approach can also be pricey, given the specialized nature of the work.
Replacing an application can provide speed and free up internal development resources for other projects. It can also be risky given the limitations to customizations and the cultural adaptation to new software that is often involved.
If you need cloud scalability, rearchitecting is an effective approach. When rearchitecting, app functionality is modified and extended to scale more efficiently in the cloud.
When recreating an app using cloud solutions, rebuilding is sometimes the best option. It's definitely a heavier lift, but may be necessary if any apps have limited functionality or lifespan.
What is the correct approach? We are here help, be a trusted advisor, and guide on your journey. During our planning phase an Application Modernization Strategy is created. Since each organization’s need is unique, a tailored strategy is developed and implemented.