Legacy Systems Migration: Unlocking new business opportunities

Introduction

The world of technology is advancing leaving no other way out for businesses but to keep pace with it as long as they look forward to getting ahead of the competition. It goes without saying that the technological impact on various industries only increasing. Things change here in the blink of an eye. 

At some point, legacy systems migration is inevitable – whether you like it or not. Businesses all over the globe are experiencing the growing need for digital transformation and enhanced sustainability along with ever-growing data volumes and increasing computer and network speeds. This is what makes companies consider legacy technology migration. 

According to Gartner’s research in 2018, organizations consider poor data quality to be responsible for losses equaling about $15 million per year.

At first, it seems straightforward – just transfer all your data from an old system to the new one. We’re sorry to disappoint you a bit, but actually, it is not that easy. A company might come across lots of challenges before the migration is successfully done. However, all problems are solvable as long as you know how to act. 

Continue reading this post to get well-informed and prepared. We will explain the basics of legacy systems, what it takes to complete their migration, and why it is worth the effort. We’ll also outline the most common challenges waiting for you. 

Join us on this amazing journey!

What falls under the category of legacy system

Have you ever heard about the technology aging process? It’s quite similar to our lifecycle which starts with birth and then continues with life and death. 

As new technology appears and gains popularity, old systems become less utilized and efficient. We call these legacy systems  –  outdated IT infrastructure, systems, or software – that still complete tasks and perform the intended functions. It’s like an old vehicle. You still can use it but it moves slowly and stalls too often. 

You think that using outdated technology does not hurt? We wish it were so! But legacy software can eventually become a critical risk to your technological infrastructure and put a detrimental effect on your entire business. See what problems you may bump into:

• Lack of support
• Unfair maintenance costs
• Poor performance
• Weak data protection
• Limited functionality
• Non-compliance with industry-specific regulations 

Basically, any inefficient system, that needs improvement or replacement and starts creating obstacles that prevent your company from reaching its goals is considered a legacy system.

Once you notice the red flags, migration must take place otherwise there will be serious consequences that you won’t like. 

Get ready to harness top-notch technology and conduct digital transformation to conquer new horizons! Improved efficiency, flexibility, higher productivity, and many more great perks you will get with old systems migration.

Everything you should know about the legacy system migration process

Outdated system migration is an integral part of your business modernization. It’s often taken as a big challenge due to the fear of losing or damaging some valuable information during the transition. But don’t get too worried – the process is not always that complicated and risky. Should you plan everything carefully and involve the right experts, the migration will go smoothly and safely.

Ok, we should figure everything out step by step to make sure everything is clear, down to the slightest detail. 

Legacy system migration refers to transferring a software application to an up-to-date environment while keeping its value and dependencies intact.

This process is rather complex and pricey as it covers integration compatibility, platform shifts, or even replacing entire systems with a modern custom solution. It will take you to plan every step thoroughly in order to avoid critical mistakes or complete falls. A risk management plan is a must-have that helps you define, estimate and manage the risks effectively. 

Legacy data migration

An entire migration project encompasses smaller yet crucial processes and you should take every single step responsively and make sure everything is done as per requirements.

Legacy data migration is hardly the most complex aspect. 

First of all, how do we determine “legacy data”? It is the information accumulated during the organization’s past activities. Legacy data is poorly structured and saved in formats that are no longer relevant yet still useful and therefore worth storing in a modern environment instead of obsolete storage.

Data must be accurate and new systems must be correctly configured so the migration process is flawless. If you have your data kept in various formats or systems, the migration will be a little bit more challenging but still possible. 

We cannot avoid mentioning data conversion and data integration as these can be included in the data migration process. Data conversion means turning the original data into a different format, while data integration involves merging the data from different sources into a single database. These aspects are rather optional depending on your case. 

Legacy system migration types

We’ve already covered so much information and we still cannot move on to the main part and see how the migration process is done. There are a few more points left to discuss. After all, we want to explore this topic as deeply as possible, don’t we? 

There are two types of legacy system migration and now we’re going to take a closer look at them. 

• Lift and Shift Migration, also known as rehosting, is rather occasional and conducted by an internal IT team with minimal to no changes. The legacy system has no direct impact on the business development process. It’s more like a technical bottleneck.
• Business Transformation relates to changing the entire system that affects business due to its inefficiency. This may involve either minor changes to gain more advantages or complete software re-architecture and adding new features. Transformation can be conducted in one go at one point in time or gradually. The first option is a one-time effort, cheaper, but not always business-friendly. The second option is way more complex, expensive, and effort-consuming but safer. Here continuous communication is required. Parallel run migration means a new system and legacy system operating in parallel. 

Cloud migration

This is another widely popular practice for you to know. Small to middle-sized businesses from all over the world opt for cloud adoption and cloud computing services such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS to withstand the tough competition. This results in increasing investments in cloud technology. 

Cloud migration involves transferring data, applications, and other business digital assets from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud so all these become accessible from any point in the world. 

Cloud migration comes with a convincing list of advantages, too. They are

• Growth and scalability opportunities
• Affordable price (companies can pay for usage only)
• Comprehensive expert support
• Better security
• Multi-level authorization limits the number of people having access to the whole data and systems
• Seamless collaboration wherever you are
• Higher speed and improved responsiveness 

To cut a long story short, cloud migration is a winning solution that opens up a myriad of opportunities for your business and provides vast space for its development. 

Why you need migration

When should you start legacy system migration? At that very moment when the system you’re using appears to have gaps, impacts your business negatively, and hinders your development and growth. Legacy does not always mean the age of software. Any system that lacks support or no longer meets your business requirements is considered legacy. 

There are several key reasons to go with legacy technology migration including

1. Enhanced efficiency
2. Strong security
3. Better support
4. Improved scalability
5. Lower maintenance costs

These are the basic benefits every business will enjoy if upgrading their system to the latest versions. However, industries vary and each one has its specifications. That’s why, some of them may experience greater gains as compared to others.

The top 6 industries particularly benefiting from legacy system migration are insurance, healthcare, financial services, retail, nonprofit, and legal.

Challenges and mistakes

Legacy system migration is not that bright and funny – it can be painful too. Challenges are inevitable and mistakes are possible. But don’t give up because the result is definitely worth all the labor.

We’ve gathered the most common issues that can arise during the migration process. Depending on your process specifics, you may encounter more or fewer problems. But the golden rule is that the more outdated your system, the more complicated the migration. 

• The migration process can temporarily interrupt business operations. This happens when the “rip and replace” method is applied. It involves entirely deleting the legacy system and replacing it with the modern one. But be aware of such consequences as operational speed loss and similar. 
• Migration is resource-consuming. Yes, modernization costs a good deal of time and money but accurate planning can make it better. This way you will prevent the expenses from skyrocketing and manage your time appropriately. Business software can cost a fortune. 
• Rewriting the system in another code language. Well, this requires huge attention and precision as one small mistake can lead to the entire system crashing. Sometimes there is no way out but to start from scratch to keep the system compatible with related platforms, hardware, etc., especially in massive monolithic systems. Updating the current code involves using outmoded technologies.
• Compatibility. When it comes to cloud migration, companies often have to go with either re-architecture or re-factor of their existing apps to ensure compatibility with the cloud environments.
• Risk assessment. You don’t want the migration process to take much longer than expected, expenses to go above your budget, or anything else to go off plan, do you? We strongly recommend creating a complete roadmap with well-documented expectations and priorities based on the ongoing assessments of current abilities and limitations. Keep your progress tracked continuously to eliminate risks. 
• Lack of talents. Modernizing your system is just half a battle. But it is impossible unless you involve experienced specialists who know how the old system is set up and how it should be migrated.

Steps to undertake legacy system migration

Finally, you’ve accumulated enough information so you can get down to business and undertake a legacy system migration. It’s going to be complex but you’ll get through it easier with this guide. 

Regardless of the strategy you pick up, the migration process is usually broken down into the following steps. 

SWOT Analysis

It all starts with detailed planning and long discussions. It’s essential to define the migration project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities/possibilities, and threats/risks. This step involves selecting the most suitable technology solution, choosing the data that should be moved, and determining the timing, technical requirements, and resources (both technical, financial, and talent). Think about how your infrastructure is supposed to change in the course of the migration. Make sure your migration strategy fully aligns with your goals.

Evaluate the existing system

Go through all the components of your legacy system to obtain a complete understanding of its functionality. Take time to properly assess critical performance, network architecture, related infrastructure, availability requirements, etc. Once you’re done with it, establish maintenance settings and transfer your current system to the cloud using such automated solutions as Azure Migrate or AWS Server Migration Service.

Design a migration strategy

This means creating a step-by-step plan based on your possibilities, requirements, and objectives. When it comes to migration strategies, there are several options you will face. When choosing, do the following:

• Outline the scope and examine the source and destination systems 
• Plan how the current operational requirements should be modernized
• Establish data standards
• Define your budget and set deadlines

Now it’s time to choose the approach:

• The Lift and Shift method is simply copying everything to the cloud
• Application evolution involves shifting legacy systems to the cloud in chunks 
• Application re-architecture means rebuilding the software application in a more advanced and scalable way

Data audit

Do not skip identifying potential conflicts, data quality issues, and correcting bugs. Furthermore, this way you also can ​​define and get rid of components that do not serve any business value anymore. This process is both effort and time-consuming yet crucial. But you can apply automation technologies for large projects and save resources.

Define the software components to be migrated first

This is necessary in case you plan to move your legacy system in chunks. Decide which components should be migrated first. Consider interdependent components as well. These are functionalities that depend on each other and cannot be migrated separately. Migrating such components should be done properly while ensuring minimum disruption.

Choose cloud service

The range of cloud services is extensive enough so you have plenty of options. But you should find what matches your business goals best. How do you know this? Turn to your migration plan and take a look at the project scope, requirements, potential issues, etc. Make sure the cloud service you selected aligns with your industry standards and provides data and system security certifications.

Back up your data

It’s no good to risk all your vital data, right? You better make sure you can go back to your previous system in case the migration goes wrong. Back up the files and other data so you will have access to it despite any emergency. Gain an additional layer of security and reduce downtime if the hard drive fails or server crashes occur.

Here’s an example to convince you. The Microsoft Sidekick data outage of 2009 resulted in an estimated 800,000 smartphone users in the United States temporarily losing personal data, such as emails, address books, and photos.

Pilot migration

At this stage, you can test the application in simulated situations that are very close to the actual environment your software application will run. Pilot migration involves a lot of user testing, performance testing, and so on. It takes time but prepares you for the actual testing and helps to avoid critical mistakes by removing code bugs that can lead to downtime when actual migration takes place. 

Legacy system migration

After having backed up your data and tested your migration plan, you’re ready to move on to the main part. Should you go with a staged approach, do it precisely and accurately so migration efforts do not disrupt ordinary system operations. Get ready to face accidents and minor deviations. It happens often. However, do your best to stick to the set deadlines and go according to the plan. Needless to say, you also must establish continuous communication between a migration team and business units so no misunderstandings occur. 

Testing

Now let’s see whether the migration is successful. This stage requires test procedures to be performed. You will have to check security, availability, and compliance. Additionally, you should make sure the migrated applications flawlessly run in a new tech ecosystem and users can access everything they need easily.  

By the way, testing is supposed to accompany various stages. With frequent testing, you can spot and correct errors early. 

Post-migration verification

Make sure the system is running properly at the user’s end before it is released. Get the results validated by key business users so you know data is moved correctly. After this audit, the new system can be made public. 

Ongoing maintenance

The work does not stop once the migrated data is released into the production environment. Regular check-ups are ahead and you should never ignore them. You will have to monitor the performance of the migrated assets, optimize cloud resources, analyze the usage of these cloud resources, and follow suggestions for improvement.

Spotting minor issues and fixing them timely saves you from serious problems and huge financial losses.

Endnotes

Does your business need modernization? Yes, it does in order to stay afloat and grow in today’s fast-evolving environment. And you will enjoy such gains as better sustainability, cost-effectiveness, performance, and customer satisfaction.

As the capabilities of modern technologies are expanding at a frantic pace, migrations increase in number, and those unwilling to adapt to the latest changes are simply left behind as outdated software is likely to hinder their business growth. 

Keep unlocking new levels and be the first to adopt innovations!