Once you have a list, you can start plotting all of those applications against an x and y axis of ease/difficulty and potential increased value if modernized. Taking an inventory of what you have is almost always one of the most obvious ways to start just about any transformation like this. The most important way to start any application modernization project is with an application assessment. What are Microservices (06:37) Start application modernization with an application assessment The following video explains more about microservices architectures: While bringing its own set of challenges, this approach is where much of the core value in modernization can be found.
This approach comes with considerable wasted compute.īy modernizing an application to more of a microservices architecture, components are smaller, loosely coupled, and can be deployed and scaled independently of one another. If even one component of an app is facing load and performance challenges, it can become necessary to scale up the entire app only to serve the most-demanding single component. They are challenging and costly to scale for similar reasons. Because all of an application’s components ship together, it is difficult and costly to add features given the overhead of complexity and integration challenges.
Monolithic apps are difficult to update for architectural reasons. Monolithic applications have two characteristics that make it desirable to modernize them: they are difficult to update, and they are difficult and expensive to scale. Legacy applications are also often monolithic applications. are ones that offer the given application a clear path to improved customer experience and ROI.ĭiscover how IBM can help you on your application modernization journey. The key to success in application modernization, like most things, ultimately comes down to strategy and picking application modernization projects where the benefits of cloud, speed, performance, scale, new feature dev, etc. Conversely, other applications might benefit meaningfully from replatforming or rearchitecturing but are so heavily coupled to existing systems and infrastructure that the complexity of modernization might outweigh the upside. Moving an application from on-premises to cloud with no thought to the ROI is moving applications just to move them. The challenges with application modernization typically boil down to cost and complexity. The benefits of application modernization can typically be summarized as improving the velocity of new feature delivery, exposing the functionality of existing applications to be consumed via API by other services, and re-platforming applications from on-premises to cloud for the purpose of application scale and performance as well as long-term data center and IT strategy. Much of the discussion around application modernization today is focused on monolithic, on-premises applications-typically updated and maintained using waterfall development processes-and how those applications can be brought into cloud architecture and release patterns, namely microservices DevOps. What is application modernization?Īpplication modernization is the process of taking existing legacy applications and modernizing their platform infrastructure, internal architecture, and/or features.
Discover what application modernization is, the common benefits and challenges, and how to get started.