Myths of Application Modernization

Companies have started recognizing software as a strategic corporate asset to combat cutthroat competition. Today, modernization is no longer solely the concern of software-centric organizations. The approach also spans multiple functions, including sales, HR, and core IT, to name just a few.

Here are a few myths that prevent organizations from recognizing the need to modernize their applications and hinder their growth in the long run.

1. Modernizing the Operating Model Is Costly

Enterprises need to be more agile and change their app development portfolio as they try to transform their business models or align with customers’ needs. However, organizations often struggle with finances due to the build-up of technical debt, maintenance costs, and operating expenses.

Paying the excessive technical debt may look like eating your future earnings as you already bear labor and licensing expenses. But what if you take the resources for maintaining those applications and focus them on incrementally rehosting? Or replatform them using best practices for the modernization of applications? By reallocating those resources, you are continuously driving innovation and efficiency.

2. Application Modernization Needs a Skilled In-House Software Team

Many businesses often believe that professionals with in-depth knowledge and experience in software development are prerequisites to modernizing applications. But this belief is not entirely true.

You can hire an external software vendor or a remote software development team to handle IT backlogs. Also, you can opt for a combination of low-code services and platforms. With low-code platforms, you can build and update apps much faster, enabling developers to share functionalities with stakeholders within a few hours or days.

In addition, you can integrate Rapid Application Development (RAD) to facilitate your development team to shift their focus on solving key performance issues rather than handling error-some and mundane technical requirements. As a result, the risk of failure gets reduced to a great extent.

3. Changing the App User Interface Is a Modernization

Revamping the user interface is quite popular as it helps you have an app that looks appealing and makes navigation easier. But most applications have complex workflows; a basic UI fix doesn’t necessarily improve the user experience.

UI is pertinent to only the usability component of UX, while other components, like extensibility and accessibility, largely depend on the application’s tech composition. So modernization initiatives would also need intervention at the tech layer to generate any meaningful impact at the app experience levels.

4. After Migrating to the Cloud, Security Is No Longer a Concern

Many businesses believe switching to the cloud is the best way to increase application security. While cloud service providers do make an effort to keep their platforms secure, it is ultimately up to the users to put security measures in place to safeguard their infrastructure and applications. The tools required to safeguard the platform's applications and services are made available by cloud providers in full. Security is always a collaborative duty between service providers and clients.

5. Lift and Shift Is the Way to Go for App Modernization to Cloud

Lift and Shift are frequently cited as the ideal method for attempts to modernize apps for the cloud. Even while Lift and Shift works effectively in various situations, we frequently lift and shift application's technical debt as well. With a Lift and Shift technique alone, we could not see the true benefits and instead ended up with extra work later on.

We can take specific steps to "cleanup" before the relocation rather than moving everything exactly as it is. The list of applications can be inventoried to determine which ones should be prioritized for modernization. Then, before migrating the applications to the cloud, we might carry out a refactoring project to adapt the application architectures to conform to the cloud architecture.

6. There Is No Outage in the Cloud

Another common misconception about application modernization is that if we migrate our applications to the cloud, we won't have to worry about downtime. Although cloud service providers like Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud work hard to prevent outages, we occasionally hear about them.

It is challenging to link an outage's causes simply to cloud providers. While cloud providers work to uphold their SLAs and deliver unbroken services, it is also our obligation as customers to prepare for unforeseen outages. While it's possible that we won't be able to predict every form of an outage, we can plan by including effective Chaos Testing techniques while creating cloud infrastructure and applications.

7. Security Is Not an Issue in the Cloud

Many companies assume that switching to the cloud is the best way to increase application security. While cloud service providers do make an effort to keep their platforms secure, it is ultimately up to the users to put security measures in place to safeguard their infrastructure and applications. The tools required to safeguard the platform’s applications and services are made available by cloud providers in full. Security is always a joint duty between service providers and clients.

Conclusion

Modernizing legacy applications is not a process but a journey of a cultural shift for you, your teams, and your organization. In this journey, there will be blockages and myths that might stop you from pursuing your goals. The purpose of this article is to make you aware of those myths so that you can be knowledgeable and aware of them and don’t let momentary panic cloud your judgment. In case you have any valuable pointers to discuss, let me know in the comments below. I will be more than happy to have a brainstorming session with you regarding this.