pplication modernization is just what it sounds like—taking outdated software and updating it with modern capabilities and features. These outdated systems are referred to as legacy systems, and they prevent businesses from reaching peak performance. Many leaders are in agreement, with 44% of CIOs believing that legacy systems are a major barrier to the growth of a company, according to Data Science Central.
What Constitutes App Modernization?
To align an outdated legacy system with current business needs, organizations can update systems by rewriting the code, replacing the older system, or rehosting applications. The reasons for app modernization are numerous. According to Gartner, modernization options include re-platforming, re-engineering, interoperability, replacement and retirement, along with changes to the application architecture.
App modernization can have a range of meanings depending on your needs, but there are key paths that can be taken, which include:
- Rebuilding: Rewriting applications for more capabilities is considered “rearchitecting,” while improving existing code is considered “refactoring.”
- Rip and replace: The process of completely replacing original applications.
- Rehosting: Moving the application to another physical infrastructure or to the cloud (third party).
- Replatforming: Changing the app features or original code to migrate to a new platform.
Reasons to Modernize Applications in 2021
If you aren’t getting the most out of your legacy system, it may be time to consider app modernization. In regards to digitalization and staying current, here are a few reasons for app modernization:
Better Customer Experience
Application modernization is a great way to separate your business from others that offer similar products and services. According to an Arm Treasure Data and Forbes Insight study, 74% of consumers are more willing to purchase a product or service based on experience alone. While 65% say they are more likely to become long-term customers if the entire customer journey is a positive experience. If that isn’t a good enough reason to consider app modernization, what is?
With an outdated legacy system, you can’t offer a great customer experience. A Forrester Consulting report found that “88% of executives say better CX (customer experience) through improved applications is very important to them.” Simply put, better customer interactions enable company growth.
Legacy systems often result in poor communication because they require a lot of manual data entry and involve too much access management. Therefore, waiting times and efficiency are negatively affected. With modernized applications, organizations can operate more efficiently, make fixes more quickly, enable advanced communications, and provide a more stable system.
The question you need to be asking yourself is this, “Is my current system making the customer journey frustrating or difficult?” With just a single poor experience, PWC research found that nearly one in five customers will walk away; after several, 59% will walk away.
Fewer Security Concerns
Organizations used to be more keen on storing their data within their infrastructure because they thought it was safer. However, now that cybercriminals have discovered ways of breaching internal systems and cloud providers are more focused on security, companies are adopting hybrid IT and cloud technologies.
Still, just because cloud providers are offering better security doesn’t mean they aren’t vulnerable. They may be improving security, but cyber attackers are improving their tactics at the same time. Therefore, cloud customers need to do their part to prevent data breaches. Measures such as cloud data encryption, identity and access management, as well as information integrity should be implemented.
But when it comes to 24/7 security, cloud providers offer much to like. Hiring a 24/7 staff to monitor an on-premise system is costly. Cloud providers give you a 24/7 security operations center (SOC), built into the cost.
Greater ROI
With an on-premise system, IT tasks often need to be completed quickly and the quality of code can be compromised. These bugs, lack of testing, and missing documentation cause technical debt. This can result in additional maintenance costs and wasted time spent keeping the system running.
By modernizing apps and moving to the cloud, you can reduce costs and improve your bottom line. By reducing technical issues, employees perform their jobs better and provide a better customer experience. Happy customers are more likely to be loyal customers. This results in steadier business growth.
No company likes high turnover. But you will most likely have to hire new team members if you keep forcing legacy code on your IT department. When given a choice, more likely than not, your engineers will prefer working with modern technologies. At $4,000 on average to hire a new employee, app modernization just makes sense.
That goes for the rest of your employees too. When they work with applications and systems that respond quickly and perform better, they’ll do their jobs better. In the same way that businesses expect their workers to perform efficiently, employees expect employers to provide technologies that enable them to perform at a high level. It’s a two-way street.
Build a Secure Digital Platform
If you want to create a better experience for your customers, tighten your security, and get a higher return on investment, app modernization is the way to go.
It starts with a thorough assessment of your current application infrastructure, a PaaS architecture implementation roadmap, a high-level application modernization strategy, and a cost estimate.
Get started on the process today by scheduling your Cloudscale application modernization assessment. Fill out the form and a CloudScale representative will be in touch to set up your consultation.
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