Integrating next-generation technology with legacy systems is more important than ever in today’s fast-evolving digital landscape. However, most organizations struggle to modernize seamlessly. The reason? Poor modernization strategy!
With over 25 years of industry experience, InApp understands that transitioning from legacy systems to modern technology is easier said than done. Through this blog, InApp will share its journey in legacy modernization. But first, let’s quickly understand what a legacy system is.
What Are Legacy Systems?
Legacy systems are software applications that are built on older frameworks, databases, and programming languages. These systems lack modern features and may not operate as intended while working with the emerging technologies.
Challenges Associated With Integrating Legacy Into Modern Technologies
Dependencies
Legacy systems have been around for years. They depend on many other processes, systems, and databases. This makes it hard to upgrade or replace the systems all at once.
Compatibility Issues
As mentioned earlier, legacy systems use older technologies or architectures. These systems are not easily compatible with modern technologies like AI models, cloud-native stacks, microservices, and APIs. This creates a complex and significant gap that has to be bridged to enable smooth communication between the two systems.
Data Migration & Integration
Data migration was another big challenge during modernization. Legacy systems often store large amounts of data in old formats and structures. This can make it hard and time-consuming for the team to move data to a new system.
Keeping data consistent during the transition process was critical. Even a small change or data error could disrupt the entire operation. The organization has to ensure the data remains accurate and complete, which can be a daunting, time-consuming task.
Risk of Business Disruption
During the transition process, there is a high potential for system downtime or functionality loss. This disruption can affect daily operations and may result in revenue losses.
Compliance
Data protection regulations are changing with the evolution of the digital landscape. Though legacy systems comply with some regulations, they cannot comply with GDPR or CCPA regulations. This requires going through additional steps to ensure proper compliance.
What Factors Does InApp Consider While Integrating Modern Technologies Into Legacy Systems?
Various factors are considered while transitioning from legacy systems to modern technology. They include:
What to Move and What to Retain
The first step is to determine whether the entire legacy system needs to be migrated or only a selected part. This is done because migration can cause disruption, and it is critical to determine if the business can tolerate the downtime.
Is the Transition Necessary
Not every legacy system needs to be moved to cloud-native development systems. InApp inspects if the current system complies with the regulation, whether it can be upgraded rather than replaced, and whether modernization will lead to enterprise transformation.
Determining Business Driver
It is essential to identify the business driver before proceeding with the migration. Who is asking, why they are asking, and what kind of modernization they are asking for helps in determining the solution. Are the executives demanding more features or the customers? For instance, if the executives are asking for more features, then chances are they are looking for KPIs, workflows, dashboards, etc. If customers are asking for more, then it is necessary to conduct an exhaustive analysis.
In addition, the amount of data available plays an important role. For example, does a business need to verify if they have a 10-year or 20-year data backlog? Will the data be stored for a long time? If data will not be stored for long-term use, it is required to rethink whether modernization is needed.
Cost
Cost plays a critical role in legacy modernization. It requires an initial investment and regular maintenance costs. They need to inspect if they are ready to bear the additional cost required for the transition process. For example, if the business has already invested $5 million in a legacy system, are they willing to bear additional cost for infrastructure changes, such as cloud migration and other aspects like data migration, maintenance, operations, etc., involved in modernization?
Also, is it performance over scale? Or is it visuals over performance? These aspects also determine the cost to a good extent.
Key Technologies Used By InApp for Legacy Modernization
Microservice architecture and containerization are two key technologies used to meet the demands of modernization.
Microservices
Microservices architecture breaks the monolithic application into smaller segments. Each microservice operates independently, and that is why failure in a single section will not impact other services. This decentralized approach helps in improving scalability, debugging, and maintenance capabilities.
Containerization
Containers are lightweight and executable software packages that offer a practical method to deploy services. They are considered highly efficient, easily portable, and more modifiable. The containers provide an isolated environment for each service and ensure uniform operation despite differences that might occur between development and staging.
Why Don’t All Legacy Systems Need To Be Scrapped?
Although there is hype around the adoption of modern systems, it is not necessarily a mandate to scrap the legacy system. If the legacy system is reliable, cost-effective, and easy to use, the business can still have this system in place. If required, the system can be upgraded, and operations can continue normally.
For example, if a team decides to continue to use .NET, they can certainly do so by simply upgrading .NET to the latest version. However, if the old system poses security or compliance issues, transitioning to new technologies such as React, Node.js, etc. is ideal.
Layered AI Integration Into Legacy Platforms To Augment Functions
AI integration into existing systems can be more challenging than anticipated. To layer AI into current systems, businesses can deploy a model that receives a copy of the data but is not used to generate output. This allows businesses to test the performance of the model with zero risk. Gradually, the AI model can be used to analyze a small set of read-only data and monitor logs to provide its insights.
Another approach is to introduce an API gateway as a middleware to create a modern and stable interface. In such a scenario, new AI services can communicate with this gateway instead of the legacy system. This middleware layer allows businesses to adopt AI without making changes to the core architecture, in addition to preventing any complexity and security risk.
Conclusion: InApp’s Thoughts on Legacy Systems vs Modernization
Therefore, there is no single winner among the two types of systems, as they have their own pros and cons. While legacy models offer data preservation, reliability, and easy access to data, modern technology can offer scalability, enhance security, comply with regulations, and help gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Whether a business wants to retain the legacy systems, opt for a mix of both legacy and modern technologies, or migrate completely to the next-generation technology, solely depends on the business goals and the ROI.
If you are unsure whether to stick to legacy systems or adopt modern technologies, it is ideal to consult industry experts, like the team at InApp. The team can guide you through the process and help you determine the best solution for your business.
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