Legacy applications pose multiple problems for data-driven organizations like yours. Outdated software might no longer receive support and maintenance from its vendor or might not integrate with modern technologies like cloud computing. Still, these applications are essential for day-to-day business tasks, and replacing them could impede productivity and profitability. Upgrading legacy applications— instead of substituting them—can save costs and increase flexibility, scalability, and security.
There are various ways to upgrade a legacy application. The approach you take to modernization depends on your budget and business initiatives. Learn more about this topic below and drive digital transformation in your organization.
Here are the key things to know about upgrading legacy applications:
The term 'legacy application' refers to outdated software or hardware that have been in use for a considerable period, often spanning several years or even decades. These systems were developed using older technologies, programming languages, and architectures that were prevalent at the time of their creation. Legacy applications can encompass a wide range of applications, databases, infrastructure, and hardware components.
Characteristically, legacy applications are known for their rigid and inflexible nature, making them challenging to modify, upgrade, or integrate with modern technologies. They may lack compatibility with newer operating systems, software versions, or hardware configurations. Moreover, legacy applications often rely on proprietary or outdated programming languages, making it difficult to find skilled developers who can maintain or enhance them.
Legacy applications are often associated with several challenges. They can have limited functionality, performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities, and poor scalability. As businesses grow and evolve, these systems may struggle to keep up with increasing data volumes, changing user demands, or regulatory compliance requirements. Furthermore, the cost of maintaining and supporting legacy applications can be high, as specialized knowledge and resources are needed to address issues and ensure their smooth operation.
Despite their limitations, legacy applications often play a critical role in business operations, holding valuable data, supporting mission-critical processes, and serving as the backbone of organizations. Therefore, the decision to modernize or replace legacy systems requires careful consideration, taking into account factors such as business objectives, budgetary constraints, and the potential impact on existing operations.
You might want to modernize a legacy application in the following scenarios:
Upgrading old systems can provide your organization with various benefits:
Read more: Legacy System Modernization
Successfully upgrading a legacy app won't happen overnight. The modernization process requires planning and persistence and might take several months, depending on the app that needs updating. Here are some tips for modernizing legacy apps:
Once you've made the decision to upgrade a legacy application, you need to decide on an approach to modernization. You can't upgrade all applications using the methods below; modernization depends on your software tool's age and scalability capabilities.
Encapsulation is a modernization approach that extends the functionality of your current application by providing additional features as services through an API. This model develops the application's interface and essentially recycles different software components. The result? You can facilitate new business processes without affecting a mainframe application.
Because encapsulation only develops the legacy application's interface, this approach doesn't upgrade the software's internal components. However, encapsulation lets you optimize the app's functionality and get more value from it when executing business tasks.
The rehosting approach to modernization involves transferring a mainframe application to physical or cloud infrastructure without changing the application's code or functions. For example, you can move an existing application to the cloud and gain scalability and data storage benefits. The app will perform in the same way after the rehosting process.
Refactoring means changing and updating the code in an existing application without causing changes to the application's behavior. That can improve functionality without needing to retrain users on how to interact with the application.
Rearchitecting involves moving an application to a new infrastructure by changing its code. This method can improve the functionality of a legacy application.
Rebuilding or redesigning an application from scratch requires more work than other modernization techniques. However, this approach can add new features and functions to a legacy application, fulfilling your business objectives.
Another way to modernize legacy applications is through a REST API, which helps you deal with outdated software with data like master client data. Alternatively, you can use the code in your existing application to create a microservice and connect it to an API.
Read more: Legacy Modernization and the Value of Enterprise Systems
Modernizing legacy applications comes with various risks depending on the method used.
Modernization techniques like rearchitecting involve migrating data from a legacy app to a new infrastructure. That can pose challenges such as data loss, which can happen when an organization doesn't properly execute a migration project or makes mistakes when implementing a particular technique. Data loss can spell disaster for any organization and can trigger lawsuits from customers and penalties for data governance non-compliance.
Data modernization might cause downtime when data moves from a legacy application to another location or developers rebuild or rehost a software tool. Downtime can frustrate customers who need access to the data in your software and the employees who rely on an application to complete day-to-day tasks.
Moving data from an on-premise legacy app to infrastructure like the cloud can increase the risk of data breaches and cybersecurity events. Your organization must use a reputable service provider that values data security as much as you do.
Changing or writing new code for a legacy app can take time and resources. Organizations inexperienced in upgrading legacy software can also make mistakes that delay the end date of modernization projects.
Modernization might involve hiring an outside team to upgrade legacy apps or investing in new technologies. All modernization techniques involve some outlay, so organizations should consider an approach that suits their budget. Also, consider additional maintenance costs when old software has new features and capabilities. Whatever the final cost, modernizing an existing app will likely work out to be less expensive than investing in a new application.
The right REST API management platform can mitigate the above risks and ensure your modernization process runs smoothly.
Read more: Modernizing Business Technology: Legacy System Modernization Through APIs
Ensuring user adoption and providing adequate training are crucial aspects of a successful legacy application upgrade. Even the most technologically advanced system will not deliver the desired benefits if end-users are resistant to change or lack the necessary skills to utilize the upgraded application effectively. Here are a few key considerations when it comes to ensuring user adoption and training during an application upgrade:
During the upgrade process, it is crucial to effectively communicate the rationale behind the change and the advantages it will offer to both end-users and the organization. Maintaining transparency and open communication can help ease concerns and foster trust. It is important to clearly explain the objectives of the upgrade, how it aligns with the organization's business goals, and the ways in which it will enhance user experience and productivity. Engaging stakeholders early in the process and establishing a feedback mechanism to address their questions and concerns is also essential.
Before the upgrade, conduct a comprehensive assessment of the skills, knowledge, and proficiency levels of end-users. Identify any skill gaps or areas where additional training is required. This assessment can help tailor the training program to meet the specific needs of different user groups, ensuring that training resources are focused and relevant.
Develop training programs that are tailored to the needs of different user groups. Consider various learning styles and preferences, and offer a mix of training methods such as classroom training, e-learning modules, hands-on workshops, and user documentation. Provide training materials that are easy to understand, user-friendly, and readily accessible. It is important to strike a balance between theoretical knowledge and practical application to ensure that users can effectively utilize the upgraded application.
Training should be an ongoing process rather than a single event. Offer continuous support and follow-up sessions to tackle any questions or issues that emerge post-training. Solicit user feedback to pinpoint areas for enhancement and assess user satisfaction. Integrate this feedback into future training sessions and application updates to maintain a user-focused approach.
Identify and empower champions within the user community who can act as advocates for the upgraded application. These super users can play a crucial role in promoting adoption amongst their colleagues. Involve these champions in the training process and leverage their expertise to facilitate user adoption and address user concerns.
Ultimately, a user-centric approach ensures that end-users feel empowered and confident in utilizing the upgraded application, leading to improved productivity and success in achieving the desired outcomes of the application upgrade.
Legacy applications make it difficult to scale, secure, and get value from your business data. When it's not feasible or affordable to replace these applications, consider a modernization approach that improves performance and productivity in your organization. Upgrading legacy apps can carry risks, but choosing the correct method will maximize your current software tools and make it easier to complete day-to-day jobs.
DreamFactory can help you update your legacy applications through encapsulation, refactoring, rearchitecting, and other modernization techniques. It can also reduce the risks associated with modernizing legacy apps. Start your 14-day free trial now!
Legacy applications refer to software systems or applications that have been in use for a long time and are built on older technologies or outdated platforms. They may no longer meet current business needs or technology standards.
Upgrading a legacy application is essential to keep it aligned with modern business requirements, technology advancements, and security standards. It helps extend the application's lifespan and maintain its relevance.
Upgrading a legacy application can provide benefits such as cost savings on maintenance, improved data governance and compliance, reduction of data silos, enhanced data security, and minimized downtime with improved reliability.
There are several approaches to modernizing legacy applications, including rehosting (lifting and shifting to a new environment), re-platforming (moving to a new platform), refactoring (restructuring for better performance), and complete redevelopment (building from scratch with modern technologies).
Modernizing legacy applications can be complex and involve risks such as data migration challenges, compatibility issues, budget overruns, and potential disruptions to ongoing operations. It's crucial to plan and execute the modernization carefully.
Real-life use cases for software modernization include upgrading mainframe systems to cloud-native applications, migrating monolithic applications to microservices architectures, and transitioning on-premises software to Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. These transformations improve efficiency and competitiveness in various industries.