• by Vikram Gajjala

Digital Transformation by Decrypting Legacy Applications

Many businesses are held back by their legacy applications, those that used to work for earlier versions of operating systems or hardware. However, as marketers, we know that for businesses to stay competitive in this digital age, they need to undergo a digital transformation. This journey involves decrypting and modernizing their legacy applications.

In this blog post, we'll discuss legacy applications, digital transformation and how to decrypt legacy applications to make the most of your marketing efforts. We’ll also discuss some tips on how to make the process smoother and less costly. Stay tuned!

What are Legacy Applications?
These refer to applications that used to work for earlier versions of operating systems or hardware. They are simply outdated software programs. It is not uncommon to find many firms still relying on legacy systems and software. However, they may still work even though but maybe volatile because they are incompatible with current operating systems and browsers. Since modernization and digital transformation go hand-in-hand, using outdated legacy technology, software, and applications will impede your business’s operations.
Though firms sometimes convert it to newer formats that can run on the current programming languages, this creates unnecessary challenges.

What is Digital Transformation?

Modernization and digital transformation require businesses to repurpose and refactor their legacy applications to align with their current business needs. The main objective of modernizing your legacy applications is to extract new business value from these obsolete applications.
 

Different Ways of Modernizing Legacy Applications

Rewrite

In this approach, you can only rebuild components or rewrite codes from scratch without altering their scope or definition.

Rehost

This approach requires you to host the application to infrastructure that is significantly more advanced to get better scalability and attain higher productivity levels.

Replace

This approach involves a total overhaul. Ultimately new features are added and new systems are built, and every single component of the outdated systems is removed.

Rearchitect

With this approach, the underlying architecture and technologies are changed, creating a new environment with new capabilities.  

Problems Associated with Legacy Applications 

Legacy applications come with all sorts of problems for firms. The biggest setback that they cause is the reduced productivity of firms. According to the 2020 Ecosystem and Application Integration report by Cleo, a massive 63% of the integration challenges that firms face are caused by legacy applications. Other problematic issues caused by legacy applications include:

1. Safety Issues

The traditional, outdated software, systems, etc., do not have security. This is because of the presence of unsupported file types, old scripting languages and old tools. These issues make the application and your business as a whole more susceptible to security breaches.

2. Increased Dependency

With these obsolete apps, overreliance on the IT team is considerably high. The IT team, operating in silos, produces and modifies applications that lack the desired cohesiveness. The result of this is that the “market time” of the application increases significantly and subsequently pushes the cost of the application higher.

Legacy Systems Have an Undesired “Domino Effect:

In a legacy software or application, if one feature, unfortunately, suffers a malfunction, the entire system can collapse. This is because all the modules in a legacy application are interconnected.

Legacy Applications Come with A High Degree of Rigidity.

With legacy applications, even the slightest modules modifications usually take a lot of time to implement. This is because the infrastructure associated with legacy systems is highly rigid.

Benefits Of Modernizing Legacy Applications and Systems for Effective Digital Transformation

• You Can Achieve an Enhanced User Experience.
• With a modernized system or software, satisfying your customers is easy. In addition, employees also get to enjoy more efficient systems and their work productivity can improve massively.
   
• Your business can enjoy reduced costs due to a reduction in “technical debt.”
   
• The market time of your application will significantly improve.
   
• Your business can attain a competitive advantage over your competitors, by using methodologies like Agile and DevOps. Getting a digital transformation, therefore, allows you to outperform your competitors and easily attract more clients.
   
• Your firm can scale with a digital transformation easily.
   
• Your business enjoys better analytics.You get vital, raw data about the performance of your business and the areas that it needs to improve on.

What Are Some of The Most Common Legacy Modernization Trends?

1. Cloud Revolution

This process involves shifting your old systems to the cloud to enjoy better performance, better scalability, and higher flexibility.

2. Automation

Automating manual systems allows firms to enjoy lower operational costs, improved operational efficiency, and saved “human hours.” For example, you can decide to automate your “delivery pipeline” to ensure updates are released frequently and consistently.
If there was no automation in a procurement department, you would manually have to set up your systems to release products to other departments. This would call for more people and an increased risk of theft in the store due to manual record-keeping.

3. Artificial Intelligence and Big Data

These tools help firms to analyze data more efficiently to get a better insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

4. A Mobile-First Digital Presence

Many businesses are increasingly embracing a “mobile-first” approach because many people interact with business brands using their smartphones. As the number of mobile users grows exponentially, companies now find it necessary to engage with their prospects and serve their customers through mobile technology. This makes communication faster and more flexible.

Final Take Away

Decrypting and modernizing legacy applications can help businesses shift seamlessly into the digital space. However, every firm should be cautious to avoid implementing strategies that are not suitable or sustainable. While phasing out legacy systems is recommended, do not rush to adopt poor practices such as installing too many systems unnecessarily. You can use many approaches to modernize your legacy applications and systems. Whether rewriting or rehosting, select the approach you determine is best. Then enjoy the benefits that digital transformation will give you!