Application modernization is the practice of updating much older software into a newer computing approach, which would include frameworks, languages, and infrastructure platforms. This concept is also referred to as legacy application modernization or legacy modernization.
It is like a renovation process in software development for the purpose of taking advantage of the improvements in safety, efficiency, features, performance, and structural integrity among others. The great thing about this modernization concept is that you don’t have to replace or retire an existing system. Instead, you can extend the lifespan of the application while taking advantage of technological innovations.
Why Should We Modernize Applications?
Application modernization enables an organization to protect its investments as well as refresh its software portfolio for the purpose of taking advantage of newer infrastructure, languages, tools, and other technological innovations.
An excellent application modernization strategy can reduce the resources required to run an application, improve uptime and resiliency, and increase reliability and frequency of deployments, among others advantages. Ultimately, this makes application modernization a vital feature of an enterprise’s overall digital transformation strategy.
Application Modernization Patterns
There are various patterns for modernization applications. These include the following:
- Refactoring – This strategy refers to the restructuring of applications. This involves taking an application and retooling vital parts of its underlying code for better performance in a new environment. Additionally, this strategy also involves rewriting codes. This approach is often indicated if you want to break up monolithic applications into smaller pieces, which are referred to as microservices.
- Lift and Shift – This strategy is often referred to as rehosting. This strategy involves taking an existing application and moving it from a legacy environment like an on-premise server to a newer infrastructure like a cloud platform. With this strategy, you move the application as is without any changes to its underlying architecture. While this may be considered the least intensive approach, this does not always mean that this is the most optimal approach, but it would still depend on the targeted application.
- Replatforming – This strategy is a middle ground strategy or a compromised method between refactoring and a lift-and-shift approach. This strategy will not require major changes in architecture or coding like refactoring, but it involves complementary updates which enable the application to take advantage of the modern cloud platform like replacing the backend database.
Key Technologies for Application Modernization
There are various technologies that are vital in the process of application modernization. These are the following technologies:
- Microservices – This is an architectural choice. Instead of making use of a monolith or a single application with a complete codebase, you will decouple different components of this monolith into smaller and discrete pieces which can be updated, deployed, and operated independently.
- Containers – These are a cloud-centric method of deploying, packaging, and operating workloads and applications. The benefits associated with containerization would include greater scalability, operational efficiency, and portability. These features are well-suited for cloud infrastructure, especially when it comes to multi-cloud environments and hybrid cloud environments.
- Cloud Computing – When we say application modernization, we are referring to the process of migrating traditional applications to run modern cloud environments. These environments would include private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid clouds.
- Orchestration and Automation – In software development, this would refer to the automation of various operational tasks associated with containers like scaling, networking, and deployment. Automation is an essential part of digital transformation as it would ensure that the operations, development, and security team can sustainably manage their modern applications at scale.
Why do Businesses Need Application Modernization?
Most businesses have significant investment in their existing application portfolio, from an operational and financial standpoint. While legacy often has a negative connotation in software, this is among the most mission-critical applications in many business operations.
Only a few businesses are willing to retire these applications and would want to start over because the productivity losses, costs, and other issues are too great. That said, application modernization is the best option for these enterprises. Application modernization is the best approach for these businesses to still be able to take advantage of newer software platforms, architectures, tools, frameworks, and libraries.
Mphasis Modernization Services
Mphasis continuously provides the best services when it comes to digital transformation and such services include application modernization. They aim to provide their clients with personalized experiences.
Additionally, their goals involve entering markets with new business models, scaling businesses infinitely, and releasing products with an accelerated approach. They also provide best practices when it comes to extracting and transitioning legacy capabilities and workloads, and ultimately delivering exceptional business benefits from cloud-native architectures as well as modern platform ecosystems.
At Mphasis, they deconstruct legacy applications in self-funded increments, with reduced technical debt and minimal information technology overhead to manage changes. They can simultaneously modernize applications as well as optimize maintenance efforts and costs. With this approach, there is a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership, rationalizes as well as modernizes the business’ application portfolio, and offers near-immediate responses to business needs.
Mphasis 