New technology has the possibility of revolutionizing business practices. Unfortunately, many industries rely on old legacy systems to run their businesses.
Let’s take a look at legacy system modernization and how software engineers are leading the charge.
Article Contents
What Are “Legacy Systems”?
Technology that is outdated but still in use is referred to as “legacy” technology. Legacy systems, then, are the systems that still make use of old technology. Let’s look at an example.
If you grew up before the turn of the millennium, chances are good that you’re familiar with pagers. They were cell phones before cell phones existed.
People used pagers to keep in contact while out and about. For example, if you were working and waiting on important news, your loved ones might page you so you would know to call at some point.
Pagers were popular in both social and professional circles. Professions in the field of medicine, in particular, embraced the technology right away.
What could be better than communicating with your employees no matter how far away from a phone they might be?
Many doctors began using pagers for this exact reason. If they were on call and needed to head into the office, their supervisors or points of contact would page them.
Legacy systems were once normal, or even cutting-edge, systems. To use the pager example, when pagers were widely used, they were the latest in communication technology.
Today, they have largely been replaced by cell phones – but not entirely. In fact, a surprising number of healthcare systems still use the pager to form the backbone of their communication efforts. The systems that use pagers are an example of legacy systems.
Given how quickly technology is evolving and new devices replace older generations, the field of computing seems to spawn legacy systems like no other industry.
One example of a legacy system in computing is Windows XP. Despite being released more than 20 years ago, many industries continue to rely on the operating system to run their businesses.
Once again, the healthcare industry is a good example. You might think that the field of medicine would be quick to adopt the latest technological tools, but the opposite is often true.
Many NHS hospital trusts still utilize Windows XP, with the bulk of their systems built around it.
Other common legacy systems include SAP, Oracle, SharePoint, HCL Domino, Lotus Notes and .NET.
Why Are Legacy Systems Still Used?
We know that legacy systems are still in use, but why haven’t the businesses that use them upgraded? In most instances, the answer is clear: money.
Many legacy systems are so deeply integrated into business processes that removing them sometimes necessitates a new system entirely. It is expensive to build systems to effectively run businesses of just about any size in almost any industry.
Modernizing systems can be incredibly costly, and not just in terms of finances. Employees often balk at the idea of changing how they do their jobs just to add new technology.
Even when workforces are ready for a change, upgrading legacy systems can be tricky. In general, you need highly skilled professionals to guide the process.
Legacy System Modernization
Modernizing legacy systems is important, but not necessarily easy.
The process involves three main challenges:
- Complexity
- Risk
- Cost
Legacy systems, as we explored above, are often deeply integrated into business processes.
Using Windows XP as an example, think about all of the little fixes and upgrades that go into businesses over two decades.
If all of those tweaks were made using Windows XP, what happens when you modernize to a new operating system?
It is an incredibly complex process. Due to this complexity, it is also risky to change platforms. Data loss, operational disruptions and downtime are all risks that must be considered.
Finally, the cost of modernizing legacy systems is impressive. Financial factors to keep in mind include investment costs in development, training and new technologies.
The good news is that the right professional can make the process run much more smoothly.
Software engineers play a pivotal role in modernizing legacy systems as high-level skills are required to carry out this process.
Many of them might have chosen to complete a software engineering masters via institutions like Baylor University that offer an Online Master of Computer Science with a Software Engineering track.
Assessment
The first thing software engineers do when modernizing legacy systems is assess and plan.
A comprehensive assessment of a given organization’s systems and applications is conducted, including evaluation of the system’s current state, weaknesses, strengths and areas for improvement
Once all of those factors have been considered, they develop a modernization strategy to make the process as clear and straightforward as possible.
Strategy Development
There are four main modernization strategies software engineers consider when developing a modernization plan:
- Replatforming
- Refactoring
- Re-architecting
- Full replacement
Replatforming is a strategy that moves legacy applications to new environments. Moving a Windows XP system to Windows 10, for example, can sometimes be done by simply “shifting” the system.
Minimal code changes are involved, but the full potential of the new environment (Windows 10 in this example) might not be utilized as a result.
Refactoring consists of optimizing and restructuring existing code to improve performance while leaving its core functionality in place.
This can be useful for partially modernizing an application or system but doesn’t take full advantage of new technology.
Re-architecting refers to the comprehensive redesign of the system’s architecture. The idea is to change as much of the system as possible to meet modern standards without replacing the system entirely.
Full replacement is the most dramatic modernization strategy. It offers a fresh start by completely reimagining the system in question.
The possibility of downtime and other disruptions throughout the transition process is increased.
Software engineers select a strategy and start the transition process. Modernizing legacy systems can be complicated, but the end result is often a dramatically more effective system for employees and customers alike.
