In recent years, the IT landscape has changed beyond recognition. The challenge for most IT organizations today is that they operate in an entirely new digital arena, yet continue to rely on legacy monolithic systems.
When these systems were developed, many were unable to determine the degree of flexibility and agility that would be required in the digital arena nor did they foresee that there would be no need to build composite applications.
However, in today’s digital world, these flexible capabilities are exactly what modern applications should have.
Legacy dilemma
IT companies that depend on legacy applications often face barriers such as incompatibilities, unnecessary maintenance costs, and a shortage of legacy coders. This makes it difficult for organizations to effectively complete digital transformation. Fanning the flames is an integration issue that a legacy application poses. Modern technologies like AI, IoT, and the Cloud can be difficult to integrate into legacy apps.
Statistics show:
- Due to their dependence on legacy applications, 90% of enterprises fail to harness the full potential of digital technologies.
- 65% of organizations believe legacy systems are incapable of meeting emerging digital business needs.
- A majority of CIOs believe that modernizing IT systems is necessary to meet the demands of digital businesses.
- Over 80% of respondents believe that refusing to modernize IT systems will negatively affect their organization’s growth.
App Modernization: Solving the Legacy dilemma
To put it simply, application modernization involves updating or creating new applications to better align with business goals. As an organization moves away from legacy code, it can benefit from new and innovative technologies. Reorganizing legacy applications allows organizations to realize much-needed flexibility and agility to meet pressing business requirements and take advantage of opportunities for future growth.
Why modernize legacy applications?
- Saving on infrastructure 15-35% year on year
- Reducing the cost of maintaining and operating applications by 30-50%
- Reduced hardware, software, and personnel costs by 74%
- Increase the efficiency of the application by 10%
- 14% increase in annual revenue, averaging $ 1 billion for large organizations.
In many industries, cutting-edge companies are adopting new thinking and modernization techniques to turn heritage into an asset.
Let’s take a look at some of the potential benefits that application modernization brings:
Business Benefits of Application Modernization
Competitive advantage
While your competitors are still pondering, you can take advantage of a quick start by deciding to modernize your applications. Take a leap of faith by redesigning apps that can double the digital adoption across your organization. Modernization enables your organization to integrate modern platforms and technologies and stay ahead of the laggards.
Improved compatibility
Modernizing legacy applications improve their interoperability with new technologies, platforms, and code. It also allows organizations to seamlessly integrate their applications to better meet current and future business requirements.
Cloud-native
Modernization helps organizations convert their legacy apps to cloud-based apps. This allows you to reap the benefits of the cloud, such as faster time-to-market, scalability, flexibility, and cost savings.
Better efficiency
Application modernization improves process efficiency and business productivity. Apps can be frequently updated and improved with bug fixes and security fixes. Modernization simplifies operations and reduces the burden on IT operations.
Reliable security
In a recent survey, 87% of CIOs stated their organizations were vulnerable to security breaches because of legacy applications. Because of their incompatibility with modern security standards and authentication methods, legacy applications cannot be updated. Legacy systems create security vulnerabilities that can be radically eliminated by upgrading your applications.
Increased user satisfaction
Whether it’s your employees or customers, using legacy apps can be a real challenge. Retrofitting apps with a refined user interface, advanced features, and innovative features will increase customer satisfaction and enhance brand reputation.
Stay relevant
Application modernization enables organizations to make the most of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and the cloud. It helps transform your IT ecosystem with current market trends and creates a flexible foundation for future innovation.
Productivity increase
Upgrading legacy frameworks can improve developer productivity by as much as 40%, according to a survey conducted by a tech Giant in the IT space. Modernizing applications and making it easier to access better services for developers can help increase the productivity of engineering teams and accelerate time to market.
Many approaches are available to organizations seeking to modernize legacy applications. However, every organization must choose an approach that is aligned with its goals. Almost all modernization approaches can be beneficial, but they are often complex, and difficult to implement.