In a business setting, changes will always crop up. New technologies, new trends, and new customer demands will always arise, hence the need to find solutions to accommodate the growing and expanding business.

A legacy application, in this case, is an outdated software program or software solution a company is using. While the legacy may remain functional to some degree, especially because such a system has key details a company has been using for years, it might face diverse challenges, including incompatibility issues, hardware issues, and challenges related to updating and maintaining such a system. This makes it hard for a company to perform some tasks and scale their businesses accordingly. This brings us to the topic of legacy application migration, including the processes, challenges, and benefits of performing the migration process, among many other insights.

What is a legacy application migration?

Legacy app migration involves moving outdated applications to new and advanced infrastructure environments to enhance their functionality. Security and overall performance. In this case, the older app is no longer compatible with the latest tools and resources, thus making it hard for companies to adopt modern solutions to modern problems.

The reason for migrating legacy apps is because such app has significant data or store the core functionalities of the business, hence the need to retain them through the legacy migration process.

So, in a nutshell, legacy app migration is all about upgrading applications made with outdated tools and technologies to ensure they align with modern platforms and tech solutions.

Importance of Legacy app migration

Legacy app migration comes with a number of benefits, making the entire process worth taking the steps. Below are some of the top benefits companies get after performing the legacy app migration process:

• Enhanced security

Security is of great significance, especially in safeguarding a company’s private data and user details. In this case, the outdated system is weak and prone to malicious attacks, hence putting the company’s data at risk.

• Seamless user experience

Another benefit of migrating a legacy application is to enhance user experience when using different devices and platforms. Modern platforms are developed with modern technologies that prioritize mobile users for faster and more responsive user experiences. Another element making modern platforms ideal for legacy apps is the fact that they are easy-to-navigate through, thanks to the intuitive user design for a seamless user experience.

• Reduced costs

One more reason why performing legacy application migration is that it reduces operational costs significantly. In this case, you don’t need to spend more on IT support, hardware expenses, and costs for maintaining on-premise software solutions.

What’s more, you can easily scale the modern solutions based on the demand and resource availability, where you only pay for the services you’ve used, thus saving you more on expenses.

• Operational optimization

Legacy applications often face challenges, especially with system integration processes. This limits businesses from implementing modern technologies and innovative ideas that can take the company to the next level. However, with legacy app migration, it becomes easy for a company to optimize operations and adopt modern technologies and innovative ideas.

• Streamlined integrations

To add on operational optimization, legacy app migration facilitates smooth system and technology integrations, which creates a streamlined workflow, better collaborations, and improved efficiency, which in turn leads to more productivity.

• Streamlined performance and scalability

Legacy applications and systems often struggle with managing high demands and increasing workloads. This limits businesses from achieving more due to issues like high latency, slow loading & processing speed, and a higher bounce rate. This means the business will decline instead of growing and scaling higher. Legal app migration solves all these issues and allows the apps to scale and perform well under different scenarios.

Signs that you need to perform legacy app migration

So, how do you know that you need to perform legacy app migration? Below are clear indications that you should be carrying out the legacy app migration process to streamline operations and efficiency within reorganization:

• Costly maintenance tasks

Software maintenance is the process of updating your system to ensure it performs and delivers as anticipated. However, the hardware system will, at some point, wear and tear due to overworking. This will require more resources to fix the issue. When the maintenance process takes a long, it impacts delivery timelines negatively, yet is costly at the same time. In such a scenario, it is a clear indication that you need to perform legacy app migration and offset costs such as licensing, infrastructure upkeep, and maintenance processes.

• Limited functionality

Software solutions are already adopting new technologies and innovations to enhance their functionality. These emerging and advanced technologies are designed using modern tools for streamlined compatibility across different platforms.

Once you realize your application is losingtrack slowly in terms of accessibility, market outreach, and overall functionality, it is a clear indication that you need to perform a legacy app migration process and access better features and functionalities in the evolving tech field.

• Software inefficiency

Generally, legacy applications are slow and resource-intensive at the same time, thus costly hardware requirements for basic functionalities. This often arises due to the system being bloated, facing limited storage challenges, and software deterioration because of lack of maintenance, unnoticed coding errors, environmental changes, and improper software installation processes. In the end, these issues lead to the system’s downtime and, generally, poor performance, thus reducing productivity. Under such circumstances, it is a clear indication that you need to perform a legacy app migration process.

• Data security issues

Legacy applications are one major target when it comes to security vulnerabilities. This is because such systems are developed with outdated technologies, thus giving easy access to hackers who can access and exploit the system in different ways.

What’s more, the lack of vendor support and limited resources for maintaining such applications pose more risks, making the system an easy target for hackers. Therefore, once you realize your application data is at risk and that your system is prone to attackers more often, it is a clear sign that you need to perform legacy app migration.

• Regulatory non-compliance

Legacy applications are outdated systems that comply with outdated regulatory and law guidelines. In this case, such systems cannot adapt to the changed or emerging new laws and guidelines, which can put your business at risk. What’s more, outdated applications rely on manual execution to update the new laws and regulations, which is a complex and costly processthat is prone to errors.

In such a scenario, it is a clear indication that you need to upgrade your system by moving it to a better environment that accommodates the changing laws and guidelines.

• Your competitors are using other systems

When you compare your system’s performance to that of your competitors and realize you are way low below your competitors, it is a clear indication that you need to perform legacy app migration. In this case, your competitors are already using advanced platforms and systems to achieve better customer support, improved speed, and provide diverse services, which are the basis of a well-performing business.

• When facing integration challenges

Another clear indication that you need to perform legacy app migration is when facing unending challenges when integrating your application with other systems and platforms. In such a case, it means your legacy system does not support such systems, hence making it hard to complete the integration processes.

Migrating such a system will streamline the integration processes, thus enabling your business to achieve more and scale even better.

Step-by-step legacy app migration

So, you’ve learned some of the reasons or indications that you need to migrate your legacy application. The next concern is the processes to follow and the tools you need. Yes, the process is complex. However, with the right team, planning, and processes, you can successfully migrate your legacy app. Below are the five steps you need to follow when migrating your legacy application:

Assessment stage-

This is the very first step you take once you realize your legacy application needs migration. The tasks here include the following:

Existing app analysis – this involves analyzing your existing system to identify areas that are functioning seamlessly as you point out the sections that need more work and improvement. After the analysis process, you will have a clear picture of where you need to put more effort and how to plan to upgrade your application to adopt modern technologies and solutions.

Highlighting existing issues with the app – after a proper system analysis, you need to point out issues that need resolutions. It can be technical difficulties in terms of scalability or performance, complexities during integration, or incompatibility issues. Once you identify the issues, you can now plan for a viable solution.

Highlight reasons for migration – with the issues identified, you can now define the goals you want to achieve after the legacy app migration process. For instance, it can be to reduce costs, enhance customer experience, promote efficiency, or streamline workflows. The goals you set here will help you stick to the reason why you are migrating the legacy app, ensuring you attain the results in a timely manner.

Note: don’t rush this phase; make sure you perform a detailed assessment, identify issues with the existing app, and then highlight reasons why you need to migrate the legacy app before taking the next step.

Planning stage-

This is the second phase after assessing the existing system. This involves creating a comprehensive migration plan/process, choosing the right migration method, and identifying risks/challenges you might incur to get better solutions in a timely manner. The basics under the planning phase include the following:

Migration plan – it is a comprehensive plan showing the budget, resources needed, and timelines for completing the migration process. Make the plan detailed enough to enhance a smooth migration process.

Migration method – depending on the goals and the migration plan you have, you can now select a perfect legacy app migration method that will enable you to achieve the set objectives. We will describe the different legacy app migration methods later in this guide.

Pointing out risks and challenges – every legacy app migration approach has its advantages and limitations. That is why you should do research and point out possible limitations that would affect the migration process. This will help you plan and streamline the process, ensuring you address the risks on time before they impact or disrupt the migration process.

Preparation stage-

Once you have a clear plan, you can now prepare as you set the environment ready for the migration process. The process includes the following tasks:

Drafting a project plan – This is a detailed overview of how you need to complete the migration process, including the tasks and responsible teams for specific tasks. As you draft the project plan, factor in the delivery timelines and deadlines to ensure the timely completion of the migration process.

Create the migration team – with a project plan, you now have clear tasks and steps you need to follow. Next, you need team members who will accomplish the tasks in a timely manner. The team should include experts in legacy software migration processes and best practices. Don’t overlook the need to formulate a well-organized team with good collaborative and communication skills. If you find it challenging to make up the legacy app migration team, reach out to Aalpha Information Systems, and we will be glad to carry out the process in a professional and streamlined manner.

Define roles & responsibilities – with a complete migration team, now assign roles and responsibilities to team members, ensuring every member understands their roles in legacy app migration. Make sure you set clear communicationpatterns between the teams to create a collaborative working environment. This will ensure all the teams are moving towards the common goal.

With all this in place, you can now move to the actual migration process.

Migration stage-

At this point, you have your team ready to handle the migration process. The tasks under this phase include the following:

Data migration – start with data migration, whereby you get all the data from the existing legacy system as you move it to the new system. You may need to convert the existing data into formats that are compatible with the systems you are shifting to. Keep track of the data migration process, ensuring you don’t lose any data or migrate the data incorrectly during the process.

Code migration – with all your data moved to the new system, now start working on code migration. The process is all about porting all integrations and customizations pinned to the legacy application to the new system to enhance a smooth transition and proper functionality. Make sure the third-party systems are updated for proper functionality and to avoid incompatibility issues.

User acceptance testing – with the data and code migration processes complete, perform user acceptance testing, where you test every feature on your new system with real users to ensure all the features are fully functional.

Allow users to share their feedback during user acceptance testing to identify any possible issues so that you can solve them before launching.

Post-Migration stage-

This is the last stage in the legacy app migration process. It involves the tasks described below:

Verifying the migration outcomes – with the migration process complete, it is vital to measure the success of the process to ensure the new system works seamlessly. This process ensures that all data is properly migrated and none is lost along the process. Most importantly, test the new systems to ensure it is fully functional and perform as anticipated.

User training & support– at this point, the system is already operational and active. However, you need to train and support users as they adjust to the new system. This involves giving them simplified tutorials and guides to resolve issues quickly as they use the new system. Most importantly, have the support team readily available to offer all forms of support needed by users, including answering common questions and troubleshooting common issues with the new system.

Regular maintenance & support–finally, your legacy migration process is complete, and your new system is fully functional. However, you need to ensure the new system continues to function and delivers the services well throughout. This means updating and maintaining thesystem regularly for streamlined operations. You can add new and advanced features, ensure proper resource allocation, and offer extensive technical support to users all throughout.

Legacy app migration approaches and use cases

As mentioned before, there are different methods or approaches you can use to migrate your legacy app. The approach you pick will depend on the available resources, budget, goals, and technical limitations.

These methods and approaches include the following:

Replatforming – the process involves adjusting minor changes to the existing app to move it to a new platform. For instance, moving an app from on-premises to a cloud environment for better scalability and saving on costs. This approach maintains the main functionalities of the existing app.

For instance, a company can opt for Replatforming by moving its infrastructure to cloud-based solutions such as AWS or Microsoft Azure for reduced costs and enhanced performance while maintaining the main functionality.

Refactoring – this refactoring process involves adjusting and modifying the codebase to enhance the system’s scalability, performance, and ease of maintenance without touching the main functionality. This approach is ideal for a business that needs to maintain a consistent business logic while updating the tech stack.

For instance, a company can refactor its codebase to introduce modern development tools & technologies such as programming languages, frameworks, and libraries to streamline operations.

Rehosting – also known as lift & shift, rehosting means shifting an app from the existing environment to a better one. This is the easiest and fastest legacy application migration method, ideal for a company that wants to adopt modern solutions faster without modifying the codebase.

In this case, the company takes advantage of the new environment and enjoys the benefits without affecting normal operations.

Rebuilding – this is a complex and resource-intensive legacy application migration method. It involves building the app from scratch. This approach suits an app that is no longer valuable to the business or is outdated and no longer serves the intended business objectives.

For instance, if a business service provider cannolonger access modern services such as mobile accessibility or integrate the system with modern solutions, then rebuilding is the viable solution in this case.

Redesigning – redesigning is also a complex and resource-intensive legacy app migration approach. It involves restructuring the whole app architecture to meet modern business needs and emerging user preferences. The goal of the redesigning method is to enhance the system’s capability, overall performance, and app usability.

For instance, a company can redesign its system to enhance a personalized user experience, achieve mobile-first design, and integrate the system with third-party systems for streamlined workflows.

Challenges of legacy app migration and solutions

Legacy app migration is a hard process that requires proper planning and a skilled team to complete the process. However, there are some inevitable legacy application challenges along the way, including the following:

• Compatibility issues – this is when the legacy app doesn’t match with components of the new environment such as programming languages, platforms, and infrastructure. This means the older system may not leverage the functionalities of the modern environment.

Solution: implement a containerization strategy by using powerful tools such as Docker to allow legacy apps to run in new environments without requiring complex modifications. Alternatively, consider Replatforming or refactoring the app to enjoy the modern benefits of modern solutions.

• Complexity in data migration – it can be challenging to shift huge amounts of data from legacy apps since legacy systems hold data in outdated formats and outdated databases that aren’t compatible with modern storage facilities. This makes the data migration process prone to vulnerabilities and complex at the same time.

Solution: use powerful cloud-based migration tools like Azure Migrate or AWS DataSync. Such tools automate and simplify data transfer to new environments. What’s more, such tools can handle huge amounts of data, eliminate data loss concerns, and ensure data consistency for a proper data migration process.

• Extreme costs – Migrating legacy applications is a costly process; even after migration, there is maintenance and support which attracts more expenses. If you fail to plan and prepare your budget well, the process might not be successful.

Solution: User powerful cost management tools such as Azure cost management and AWS cost explorer to track and monitor the costs. With such tools, you will get insights into overall processes and spending, allowing you to track and limit costs in some areas where necessary. Most importantly, draft a detailed budget for the migration process to prepare well for the completion of the entire process.

• Downtime & disruption – the process of legacy app migration might interfere with normal operations within an organization. This can lead to extreme loss of revenue and reduced productivity, which can lead to a decline in a company’s growth.

Solution: draft a comprehensive migration plan to have all checks in order. For instance, you can adopt a hybrid migration plan or plan for the migration process during off-peak timelines.

The hybrid plan allows you to migrate part of the legacy app while another part remains functional for continuous operations. Off-peak migration means business productivity is low, and there will be no much impact during these timelines.

• Outdated software architecture – legacy apps operate with outdated software solutions that don’t align with modern solutions. In this case, such systems depend fully on outdated solutions, thus complicating the migration process.

Solution: Perform a detailed assessment to point out compatibility issues and determine whether rebuilding or Replatforming is the ideal solution.

• Legacy code complexity – legacy apps super outdated and complex code, thus making it hard for modern solutions to understand and accommodate the outdated technologies during migration. Another issue with legacy code is inefficiencies, making it have to shift to another environment.

Solution: always review the code first to identify any issues and modify the code before the migration process. You may refactor or rewrite the code depending on the complexity of the existing issue.

You can also implement modern development best practices such as CI/CD to automate the testing and deployment processes for updated code.

• Technical debt – legacy apps face technical debt challenges since businesses overlook the need for long-term maintenance needs. This makes it hard to adjust and modify the software design to suit modern solutions. For instance, it is complex to transition monolithic apps to containers or microservices.

Solution: refactor the system thoroughly before migration for a smooth transition of legacy apps to a new and modern environment.

• Complex dependencies & integrations – legacy apps have complex integrations with other systems, making the migration process complicated. The integrations, in this case, must continue to function even during the migration process.

Solution: analyze the available integrations before you start the migration process to plan and adjust where necessary. This will ensure the operations continue as usual and that the migration process does not impact business continuity.

Legacy app migration best practices

We’ve highlighted the challenges that come with the legacy app migration process. However, with the following best practices, you can migrate your legacy app seamlessly without facing more complexities along the way:

Involve stakeholders early – All the members using the app should take part and know the migration plans. Most importantly, factor in the needs of the many users using the legacy app before and during the migration process.

Draft a comprehensive migration plan – a migration plan will streamline all the migration requirements, including the budget, tools, delivery timelines, teams, and other resources ideal for the process.

Most importantly, figure out the possible risks and immediate solutions early enough to ensure the entre process runs smoothly.

Have a rollback plan – what if the migration process fails as expected? This will impact the business badly, especially if you don’t have another plan. Therefore, create a proper plan to restore the legacy app to its previous state if the migration process doesn’t work out.

Implement version control–A version control strategy will help the migration team track and monitor every step they take so that they can rollback to the previous state when the need arises.

Document every step and action– legacy app migration is a comprehensive process, hence the need to document every phase for easy maintenance and update after deployment.

Review the post-migration impact – after the migration process, have you achieved your goals? Is the new system effective? Doing a post-migration review will help you measure the effectiveness of the migration process in relation to your business goals.

Conclusion

Legacy app migration is a process that helps businesses transition and adopt modern solutions that will accelerate business scalability while offering ultimate flexibility and efficiency in operations.

Businesses can save on costs, optimize performance, and tap into new and emerging technologies to enhance performance and overall productivity.

The process is a complex one, and it comes with a number of challenges. However, with the steps highlighted in this guide and the best practices explained above, you can be sure to experience a smooth and streamlined legacy app migration process.

Back to You! 

Are you facing problems with your outdated application and looking for legacy application migration? We’re here to help! Connect with our application development company, Aalpha Information Systems, and get a free consultation.