Application Modernization with Cloud-Native Approach: An In-depth Guide

The present world provides a lot of hurdles for any business to grow in their desired direction. These companies’ research and development departments face fierce competitive pressure from the industry and the changing times. It becomes their immediate need to innovate and bring in new technology or ideas that give them an edge over others.

This is all done to meet the demands of the changing market, reduce their technical debt and increase the overall productivity of such companies. Outdated technology and IT support are of no use to this endeavor, and they limit the innovation ability of the companies. Mphasis continuously strives to help such organizations with their mainframe modernization services to focus on the company’s operations better.

What Is Application Modernization?

Taking outdated applications and upgrading its platform infrastructure, internal systems, and the way of using is known as application modernization. The advantages of application modernization can be summarized as increasing the speed with which new features are delivered, exposing the functionality of existing applications to be consumed via API by other services, and re-platforming applications from on-premises to cloud-native application modernization. 

On the other hand, the most common issues are cost and complexity. Moving an application from on-premises to the cloud without considering the implications may gain significantly from re-platforming. However, it is so tightly tied to old systems and infrastructure that the difficulties of modernization may outweigh the benefits.

Challenges of Modernization

Mphasis offers mainframe modernization services so that your legacy systems with outdated technology gains the upper hand in the present, but there are challenges like:

● Outdated Design

Data, workflows, and embedded rules are tightly coupled in existing core systems. This limits their flexibility and necessitates system-wide regression testing after any modifications, preventing them from supporting new business process models that take advantage of technological improvements.

● Lack of understanding

Due to attrition or workforce aging, work done on applications by various subject matter experts over many years is lost. The business logic, data flows, and dependencies are difficult to derive from previous documentation or code.

● Complicated integration

The legacy monolithic applications and programs feature complex module integrations, which have become outdated for the present market. Such a thing necessitates extensive testing and production implementation along with a more extended time-to-market transformation.

● High maintenance costs

The modernization and maintenance of outdated applications become too expensive, owing to decreasing expert resource pools.

Therefore modernization is required for business houses to fight the industry’s fierce competition.

What Is Cloud-Native Approach?

Cloud-native is a new way to develop and run software applications that use cloud computing’s flexibility, scalability, and resilience. It refers to the many tools and methodologies used by software developers today to create applications for the public cloud instead of traditional data center infrastructures.

A set of firms known as “Born In The Cloud” pioneered the cloud-native application modernization approach to designing and running software, including streaming giants, Netflix and Spotify, ride-hailing start-up, Uber, and accommodation booking site, Airbnb.

Other firms searching for similar digital agility and disruptive competitive advantage have adopted the cloud-native approach. Microservices, cloud platforms, containers, Kubernetes, immutable infrastructure, declarative APIs, and continuous delivery technology are commonly used in cloud-native app development, as are methodologies such as development operations and agile methods.

How does Mphasis Apply It?

Mphasis uses various ways to apply cloud-native application modernization, such as:

● Microservices Composer

It aids in the development of a foundational platform for any microservices-based application that can be deployed on a variety of container systems. The associated application composer portal is a web-based tool that allows you to select the services you need for your application quickly.

● Microservices Testing Framework (MSTF)

This enables end-users to test microservices in only three clicks and allows for the discovery of SOAP (Simple Object Access Portal) based web services and other things. It also provides backend application programming interface services and connectivity using on-premises and cloud setup models that are flexible, scalable, and secure.

● AutoCode.AI

It has been a clear understanding that AI is a deep learning framework that automates the design-to-code front-end GUI development process, saving time, money, and effort. To host and manage the code for speedy validation, it uses cloud formation templates and containers, making it easier for the modernization process.

Layers of Cloud-Native Approach

These are the layers to the mainframe modernization service that are present under the cloud-native approach:

● Application Development Layer

This is where the cloud-native focuses on the tools and methods used by developers to create the applications like the databases, messaging systems, integration, and delivery pipelines.

● Infrastructure Securing Layer

This develops and creates the environment where the application will repeatedly be working. The process of cloud-native modernization involves the automation of critical programs, addressing security concerns, and authentication tools.

● Runtime Layer

This involves the checking, and anything associated with the runtime of the application, including storage and networking.

● Management Layer

This layer brings together the tools and developments made in the previous layers into the applications and scale operations, including scheduling and orchestration.

● Observatory Layer

Any project needs to be monitored and checked if they are fulfilling the requirements of the current organization. Proper monitoring and auditing are required to keep problems at bay.

Conclusion

Modernization is vital for any organization that functions in the present world. The modernization of the cloud-native application requires development on a different scale than any traditional approach. It offers some advantages like no programming language barrier, the flexibility of operations, and automation.

Application Modernization provides real measurable benefits to the customers. According to statistics, Mphasis services have given up to 55% acceleration in modernization project delivery. More than 40% reduction in modernization costs, helped reduce implementation pressures through experienced phased processes and approaches that ensure seamless application migrations. Mphasis service clients worldwide with a robust set of tools, and combinations of techniques in modernization, including rehost, re-platform, replace, refactor, re-architect, rebuild, retain, and retire. So, try now.

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