From Legacy to Leading Edge

Improved Security Through Application Modernisation

Legacy applications can be vulnerable to security threats due to outdated code, lack of security features and susceptibility to known vulnerabilities. Legacy modernisation includes implementing robust security measures such as encryption, authentication, access controls, and regular security patches and updates. Modernised applications can decrease threats, like cyberattacks, data breaches and other security risks, thereby protecting sensitive information and safeguarding the organisation’s reputation.

What’s a barrier organisations must avoid? Being too narrow in their approach to their enterprise application modernisation initiative. They may think of application modernisation as a simple task where they need to rewrite or refactor this app.

But that application might interact with 10 different business processes, some of which might involve other leaders of the C-suite. The need for cross-collaboration and cross-functional alignment of application modernisation can often be neglected, when in reality, application modernisation is part of the broader digital business transformation journey.

Organisations must take a holistic approach and assess their level of readiness for transformation before embarking on their application modernisation journey. Consider several challenges spanning across people, processes and technology when approaching modernisation:

People

• Resistant to change: An application development team that’s using a specific development methodology over several years is often resistant to change that needs upskilling, changes in ways of working, and usage of new development practices and patterns.
• Skills gap: Organisations often lack the expertise in the modern development frameworks and cloud technologies required to successfully execute modernisation efforts.

Process

• Legacy integration: Integrating legacy systems with modern applications can be complex and time-consuming, requiring careful planning and execution to ensure seamless interoperability.
• DevSecOps adoption: Integrating DevSecOps practices to simplify development, testing and deployment procedures could cause delays for organisations with low levels of DevSecOps maturity.
• Governance and compliance: Adhering to compliance and governance frameworks will introduce delays in adoption of modern application architecture.

Technology

• Complexity of existing systems: Decoupling tight integration across legacy components and processes while maintaining feature requirements requires significant time and resources.
• Data migration and integration: Migrating data for applications that are based on monolithic architecture and integrations among other systems requires careful evaluation of dependencies, compatibility and configuration. The complexity results in additional time spent before data migration can be executed for modern decoupled systems.
• Documentation: Applications built over a long period often result in inconsistent documentation, which makes it difficult to understand the inner workings of the application, inhibiting the ability to plan modernisation effectively.

Measuring Success in Application Modernisation

A key step for a successful legacy modernisation initiative: Determine and specify the business objectives that can be assessed and tracked. For instance is how well delivery agility is improved by faster time-to-market of products and services. For each business objective, organisations should:

• Establish and define the metrics that need to be collected.
• Baseline the current state value of those metrics.
• Estimate the potential value of those metrics post-transformation.

By establishing a practice of continuous tracking of these metrics across the application modernisation effort, the organisation can measure the improvements achieved.

Building Tomorrow

While the initial investment in application modernisation may seem significant, the long-term cost savings can be substantial. Modernised applications require fewer resources to operate and maintain, resulting in lower operational costs over time. By eliminating legacy dependencies, reducing downtime and improving system efficiency, organisations can realise significant cost savings in areas such as infrastructure, support and maintenance.

Overall, the benefits of enterprise application modernisation extend beyond technical improvements to include tangible business outcomes such as increased agility, innovation and competitiveness in the marketplace. By embracing legacy modernisation efforts, organisations can future-proof their applications, enhance their capabilities and achieve sustainable growth in the digital age.

"Modernising your applications isn't just an upgrade—it's a strategic shift to stay competitive in a digital world."

Shashank Ambrish, Director of Business Operations TEKsystems India