Meeting marketplace needs through application modernization

The ongoing pandemic has put unprecedented stress on the global business landscape as more people than ever choose to stay home to work and shop. Many organizations have responded by accelerating their plans for digital transformation, launching new business models and products to remain competitive in today’s unstable climate. Because of the challenges faced when using older software to apply modern business strategies, company leaders must consider plans for application modernization.

woman working on computer modernizing application

This solution improves app development, capability, and downtime by adapting existing software to enable newer computing approaches, frameworks, and platforms. Examples include migrating legacy apps to microservices or physical servers to cloud computing.

This blog will illustrate the impact of modernization on businesses and what it means for organizations envisioning growth in a time of uncertainty.

Evolving alongside a rapidly changing digital landscape

In response to the changing needs of industries and workforces, many companies are turning to remote work operations and the required infrastructure to ensure business continuity and success.

The widespread need for online operations has spurred on existing plans for digital transformations. According to data from Global Surveys, companies are executing their digitization strategies an average of 20 to 25 times faster than thought possible before the pandemic. Additionally, forward-thinking organizations are also migrating to modern networks, allowing them to meet evolving customer needs. System modernization is critical to keep up with these increasingly complex applications.

Download the e-book: Benefits of Application Modernization

Application modernization is the vehicle taking many organizations on this digital journey. Business developments driving enterprises to modernize include:

Cloud-native applications: Running applications through the Cloud, the standardization of operating systems, and cloud-ready application remediation.
Containerization: Improves hardware use by enhancing portability, improving computing capabilities, and reducing dependency on the underlying infrastructure.
Application integration: Lightweight API-first architecture combining upstream and downstream systems.
DevOps/SecOps: Automated processes across development and operations that accelerate time to market.
Data insights and AI/ML: Builds more intelligent applications and real-time insights to achieve operational efficiency.

Common patterns for modernizing applications include::

Lift and shift: Also called rehosting, lift and shift takes an existing application and moves it from a legacy environment to a newer infrastructure. By harnessing this pattern, organizations move the application with little to no changes to underlying code. .
Refactoring: In application modernization terms, refactoring is another way of saying “rewriting” or “restructuring.” This approach entails retooling legacy application code to better run in a supportive cloud infrastructure environment. Rewriting code and restructuring the existing codebase allows developers to break up a monolithic application into easy-to-access microservices. Development teams can use microservices to maximize cloud-native systems and tools, including containers and container orchestration.
Replatforming: This pattern stands as a middle ground between the refactoring and lift-and-shift approaches. While replatforming doesn’t require major code changes, it does entail updates that enable legacy apps to utilize a modern cloud platform—for instance, modifying or replacing the application’s backend database.

Learn more: Modernizing applications for cloud migration

Key technologies to get you started

As successful business operations become more and more competitive, cutting-edge organizations must be responsive, resilient, and reliable. Application modernization breaks the rigid integration between hardware and software in favor of a more flexible infrastructure.

There are several intersecting technologies fundamental to modernizing your applications:

Cloud computing: When people discuss the modernization process, they’re usually referring to the migration of traditional applications to cloud environments. These include cloud platforms, private clouds, and hybrid clouds. For example, cloud-based data recovery solutions like Microsoft Azure provide companies with a cost-effective fail-safe for their primary data storage systems.
Containers: Containers are a cloud-centric method for packaging, deploying, and operating various workloads and applications. This technology revolutionizes how enterprises manage business-critical applications by providing greater scalability, portability, and operational efficiency. These elements are well-suited for cloud infrastructure—especially multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments.
Microservices: Instead of building an application as a single codebase, IT can decouple several components into independent web standards. With microservices, there are thousands of disparate components supported in web servers and the Cloud. Each of the pieces can be deployed, updated, and operated independently of one another.
Orchestration and automation: Software orchestration is the automation of tasks associated with containers, including deployment, scaling, and networking. Meanwhile, automation is needed to ensure that development, operations, and security teams can sustainably manage modern apps at scale.

Why do organizations need application modernization?

Most organizations have large investments in their existing application portfolio from both a financial and operational standpoint. Although “legacy” has negative connotations in software, these systems are often among the most mission-critical applications. Few businesses are willing to retire these apps because the cost of replacing them, productivity losses, and other issues are simply too great. Therefore, application modernization is the most sensible way for enterprises to employ new software platforms, tools, libraries, and frameworks.

Modernizing legacy apps enables organizations of all sizes to provide customers with a unique digital experience while reducing overall costs and increasing application reliability and resiliency. CBTS Application Services specializes in bringing outdated systems into the modern age with future growth in mind.

Watch Chad Stansel, Director of Application Development, discuss how CBTS can support organizations ready to move their applications to the Cloud.

Task CBTS with your digital transition strategy

The experts at CBTS Application Services build client-centered partnerships that enable best-in-class business solutions.

Niche skills sets are needed to keep up with the complex, rapidly changing tech landscape. CBTS engineers have the experience and the knowledge to help future-proof your business. Because we understand your architecture and tooling needs, CBTS provides transformational solutions for scalability, automation, and cloud-readiness.

CBTS fully managed solutions enable clients to offload the burdens of risk, monitoring, maintenance, and more. By setting your apps up for future success, your company is free to focus on critical business goals.

Contact CBTS today to learn more about how application modernization can transform your business operations.

Meeting marketplace needs through application modernization

Evolving alongside a rapidly changing digital landscape

Key technologies to get you started

Why do organizations need application modernization?

Task CBTS with your digital transition strategy

Read more about application modernization from CBTS:

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