Business level considerations to modernize your application
Most business applications need to be modernized in order to address the challenges and opportunities of today’s world. This modernization involves transforming your legacy, monolithic applications into software that is more agile and with higher availability [1]. This typically involves moving some or all of your IT environment into the cloud. Although modernizing an application involves restructuring the source code and the IT environment, companies often need to modernize their businesses themselves in similar ways [1].
Continual modernization has many benefits. Companies have reported cloud cost reductions to around 50%, the application response time has increased 10 times, the deployment cycles were shortened from 6–8 weeks to 1 week, and the code deployment was accelerated to 80–100 times per day [1]. Although modernizing an application has many benefits for businesses, cloud adoption, and optimization must be continuous and adapted to each business. It often requires a continuous commitment and full-stack observability to understand your cloud systems and optimize them.
In this article, we will talk about what you should consider deciding if you need to modernize your application or not and how to modernize the application considering business values.
When should you modernize your application?
In fact, not all applications need to be modernized. Here are some questions that should be answered to decide if you need to modernize your application or not.
- Are you going to spend just as much in the cloud as you were on-premise?
- Is your application unable to meet the current demand? Do you need more scalability?
- Are your competitors growing faster than you are in your market share?
- Are your customers looking for more features than you can quickly develop?
- Do you need a DevOps culture?
If you answered yes to most of these questions, then you do need to modernize your application.
How to modernize your application?
The most common approach to moving your application to the cloud is the 7 R’s approach. Businesses can deconstruct their applications into clearly defined migration options using this approach as follows. First, businesses need to retire the applications that they do not need anymore. Then, they need to retain on-premises applications that are too complex or costly to migrate. After, they need to rehost their on-premise applications to the cloud with as little change as possible. Then, it is necessary to re-platform applications that need to run on different operating systems in the cloud by changing one or more components so that your application can achieve a higher level of optimization in the cloud. After, replace applications that have better and/or cheaper SaaS solutions available. Then, refactor applications that need significant code rework for the cloud, which entails decoupling from other systems as needed, or transforming them into microservices so that they can achieve the maximum cloud advantages. Finally, reimagine businesses processed in the cloud by redefining and enhancing core value propositions.
Are all the 7Rs necessary for your business?
If fact, you may not need to do all the 7Rs steps. To decide whether you need it or not, think about a couple of questions. That is, do you have a choice between modernizing your application or not? If it is essential for you to modernize your application to deliver better functionality and more value, then the 7Rs are a must-do. Also, think if your application will actually benefit from modernization. For example, modernization might not be needed if you have a stable legacy application with a limited lifespan. Think if you are going to recover the costs of modernization in the long term. Of course, the more changes you make, the more expensive and time-consuming your modernization will be. Finally, check if your team has the knowledge and talent to do the modernization.
5 key thoughts about modernization
- Since modernization is a long-term process, you should focus on its value and not just its cost.
- Consider breaking down your application and modernizing it bit by bit because the scale of cloud modernization can be huge. This can be done by using the microservices architecture and the open source TARS microservices framework can help you with that.
- Communicate with the IT team and the rest of the business to make key changes.
- Prioritize which application needs to be modernized first to bring more value to your client and organization.
- Don’t forget to test the refactored code exhaustively to make sure the modernized application corresponds to the legacy application.
TL;DR: A cloud-based modernization program can reduce technical debt and boost organizational speed and agility. However, full-scale modernization may not be the right solution for every application or every company. Even if you decide to put off modernization, for now, it should be on your plans for the future.
About the author:
Isabella Ferreira is an Ambassador at TARS Foundation, a cloud-native open-source microservice foundation under the Linux Foundation.
References
[1] https://newrelic.com/blog/best-practices/continuous-application-modernization-observability
[2] https://www.accenture.com/ca-en/insights/technology/modernize-maximize-cloud
