Modernisation of Applications: The Importance and Benefits
Published on : Saturday 04-12-2021
Almost all modernisation approaches can be beneficial, but they are often complex, and difficult to implement.
In recent years, the IT landscape has changed beyond recognition. The challenge for most IT organisations 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 organisations 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:
1. Due to their dependence on legacy applications, 90% of enterprises fail to harness the full potential of digital technologies.
2. 65% of organisations believe legacy systems are incapable of meeting emerging digital business needs.
3. A majority of CIOs believe that modernising IT systems is necessary to meet the demands of digital businesses.
4. Over 80% of respondents believe that refusing to modernise IT systems will negatively affect their organisation's growth.
App modernisation: Solving the legacy dilemma
To put it simply, application modernisation involves updating or creating new applications to better align with business goals. As an organisation moves away from legacy code, it can benefit from new and innovative technologies. Reorganising legacy applications allows organisations to realise much-needed flexibility and agility to meet pressing business requirements and take advantage of opportunities for future growth.
Why modernise legacy applications?
a. Saving on infrastructure 15-35% year on year
b. Reducing the cost of maintaining and operating applications by 30-50%
c. Reduced hardware, software, and personnel costs by 74%
d. Increase the efficiency of the application by 10%, and
e. 14% increase in annual revenue, averaging $ 1 billion for large organisations.
In many industries, cutting-edge companies are adopting new thinking and modernisation techniques to turn heritage into an asset.
Let's take a look at some of the potential benefits that application modernisation brings:
Business benefits of application modernisation
Competitive advantage: While your competitors are still pondering, you can take advantage of a quick start by deciding to modernise your applications. Take a leap of faith by redesigning apps that can double the digital adoption across your organisation. Modernisation enables your organisation to integrate modern platforms and technologies and stay ahead of the laggards.
Improved compatibility: Modernising legacy applications improve their interoperability with new technologies, platforms, and code. It also allows organisations to seamlessly integrate their applications to better meet current and future business requirements.
Cloud-native: Modernisation helps organisations 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 modernisation improves process efficiency and business productivity. Apps can be frequently updated and improved with bug fixes and security fixes. Modernisation simplifies operations and reduces the burden on IT operations.
Reliable security: In a recent survey, 87% of CIOs stated their organisations 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 modernisation enables organisations 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. Modernising 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 organisations seeking to modernise legacy applications. However, every organisation must choose an approach that is aligned with its goals. Almost all modernisation approaches can be beneficial, but they are often complex, and difficult to implement.
Article contributed by iauro: We started with the belief that business problems can be solved with intelligent, modern technology intervention. Since our inception, we have continuously evolved, experimented and innovated by testing the limits of the ingenuity that technology can enable. Building great products is intertwined in the roots of our organization and part of our DNA. Our journey has been of continuous learning and progression. Starting with Mobile and Cloud, User Experience, Data analytics BigData and IoT integrated solutions, to scalable web solutions governed by DevOps platforms and based on Microservices & Microfrontend architectures. Rather than sticking to single technology, we have always had the vision to adapt, master and embrace new-age technologies, tools and frameworks.
Article Courtesy: NASSCOM Community – an open knowledge sharing platform for the Indian technology industry:
https://community.nasscom.in/communities/cloud-computing/modernization-applications-importance-and-benefits
