Jan 3rd, 2025
Legacy Modernization: How to Do it Without Building it From Scratch
Legacy system. Two words no developer ever wants to hear. Dealing with a legacy system can be one of the most challenging things an engineer has to do particularly if no one in the organization remembers how it works.
To avoid the pitfalls of working with a legacy system, the best thing to do is update it. But this can be a process as challenging as just working with the system.
Legacy modernization can be a slow and painful process, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term cost. The increase in productivity and efficiency, as well as the decreased cost and time spent by engineers on maintenance make modernization a necessary step for any company wanting to compete in the modern world.
What Is a Legacy System?
A legacy system is a software and hardware system that has become outdated and potentially problematic. They typically exhibit inefficient performance, are built with outdated techniques or technologies, may have security vulnerabilities, limited scalability, and high maintenance costs.
Legacy systems frequently face challenges in integrating with modern technologies, which can prevent organizations from meeting customer needs and business demands. Due to their outdated design and complexity, these systems can stifle innovation, elevate operational risks, and cause compatibility issues with newer tools and platforms. As a result, businesses may struggle to maintain these systems, highlighting the need for legacy modernization to remain competitive and efficient in today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape.
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What Is Legacy Application Modernization and Why Should You Consider it?
Legacy application modernization is the process of updating these systems to bring them up to modern standards and make them more performant and easier to use. The goal is to create a new system that supports your business’s needs and is easier for your developers to use.
Legacy application can be considered part of a broader movement toward digital transformation. Digital transformation is the process of using technology to create new processes and customer experiences to meet changing market requirements.
Timeline for a Legacy App Modernization Project: The timetable for a legacy modernization project will depend on the scope and strategy of the project. Regardless of the project’s timetable, be sure to create backup systems to avoid downtime and other bugs or issues while the migration is taking place.
Some of the reasons why legacy systems should be modernized:
- Working with legacy systems can be particularly challenging for new hires or developers who weren’t involved in their initial development. These systems often require specialized expertise, and their costly maintenance can drive up operational expenses.
- Due to difficulties in integrating with modern technologies, legacy systems can create data silos, which negatively impact efficiency.
- Outdated systems also struggle to meet current compliance and regulatory standards, putting organizations at risk.
- Their lack of reliability can result in increased downtime, disrupting business operations.
- Furthermore, the inability to innovate with these older systems, combined with the high cost of replacement, can limit an organization’s ability to stay competitive.
Key Steps in Modernizing Legacy Applications
Legacy modernization can be achieved by completing a complicated but well-outlined series of steps. While every legacy system is different, the process can be broadly applied to most systems.
- Assessment: Analyze existing legacy systems to pinpoint issues.
- Planning: Establish objectives, schedule, and resources for modernization.
- Design: Develop a plan for shifting to updated solutions.
- Execution: Transfer data, applications, and processes to advanced technologies.
- Testing: Verify that new systems integrate smoothly with current operations.
- Optimization: Track performance and enhance systems for better efficiency.
5 Major Strategies for Legacy Application Modernization
Here are some of the key strategies to consider before starting app modernization project.
1. Rehosting
This is a somewhat simple process that involves simply migrating the existing codebase to a new hoisting platform (like AWS, for example) without changing much or any of the legacy code itself. This can be useful when a quick transition is needed and will allow you to reap some of the benefits of modern hosting platforms, however, for a truly comprehensive app modernization, it may not be sufficient.
2. Refactoring
This involves rewriting part or all of the code itself. This is done with the goal of introducing new frameworks or methods, which will bring code up to modern standards, and make it more performant and easier for new developers to work on.
3. Replatforming
This entails moving legacy systems to a new platform or IT infrastructure. Similar to rehosting, it allows you to reap the benefits of modern and cloud-based software but may not be sufficient to solve all legacy issues on its own.
4. Re-architecting
This typically means moving from a monolithic architecture to a microservices architecture. Doing so allows for greater flexibility and scalability of the code.
5. Full replacement
In cases where the system is too old or outdated to be refactored, re-coding the entire system from scratch may be necessary.
What Are the Key Challenges to Plan For?
Your organization’s journey to modernization will not necessarily match the journey of another organization, but there are a few common issues that every migration project shares:
1. Technical debt
Technical debt is incurred any time a change is made to the codebase. All newly-introduced code has the potential to cause bugs, change other pieces of code, or become a problem later on. To combat this, you should make reducing technical debt a priority when refactoring a codebase.
2. Security
While modernization allows you to improve the overall security of your system, the security of the system will be at risk during the migration. Incorporate security measures early on in the process, and make sure you adhere to them.
3. Future-proofing
While modernization is, in itself, a method of future-proofing, it is important to look even further into the future while you’re doing it. What frameworks are you introducing? How flexible will the new system be? You don’t want to end up doing this all over again two years down the road, so make sure that the planning stage of your migration includes some careful consideration of the future.
Conclusion
Why should you do it, even though your system still works? A legacy system that works is a slow drain on your organization. Although it is a lot of upfront effort to change it, you will be very happy you did later on down the road. The cost savings and increased productivity are massive, and future-proofing your business’s technical systems is the only way to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of modern development.
