What is Legacy Modernization?

There comes a time when any piece of technology requires an upgrade. Whether it be a legacy business system like SAP ERP or your tablet or cell phone, if devices were never upgraded, they would never be able to compete with the demand required from complex business needs in order to meet consumer and corporate demand. As programs and time progress, technology becomes “legacy” or outdated - eventually becoming obsolete if not modernized.

Considering ERP systems, like those provided by SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, many of these systems were made to operate within the constructs and expectations of what was needed for your business at the time of inception, however, as business change occurs, systems that support those changes also need to change with it. Failing to upgrade and update these business systems easily results in higher costs to maintain them, slower performance and poor user experience. 

In this blog, we’ll explain legacy modernization, common challenges that come with legacy systems, and the benefits that occur when legacy systems are modernized. Additionally, we’ll explain EdgeReady Cloud and how it is an effective solution for legacy modernization.

Legacy Modernization Explained

So, what is legacy modernization? Legacy modernization refers to the process of transforming or converting a legacy system into a modern infrastructure to reduce IT costs, improve agility, collaboration, and consistency. Just like a software update, legacy modernization unites the durability of outdated business applications with modern technologies to build a strong business platform.

Maintaining a modernized, updated system is essential for business growth. Not only will maintaining a modernized system assure that internal processes are automated, but your productivity and customer satisfaction will also increase. Solutions such as EdgeReady Cloud support legacy modernization for any ERP system by transforming legacy applications to a cloud-based, SaaS application, while also converting legacy code.

So what challenges are inevitable for those businesses that refrain from modernizing their outdated systems?

When a legacy system isn’t modernized, there are many challenges that your corporation can experience. Below are some issues that might impact your business:

Inefficiency:

Legacy systems can contribute to inefficiency in internal processes, resulting in diminished employee productivity. This is because the systems were implemented at a time when business needs and practices didn’t require the same level of automation. Inefficiency can also result in bugs and instability within the system.

Security Risks:

Huge risk towards security is prevalent in legacy systems. Outdated systems are most likely not supported anymore by the vendor or company that originally created them. An unsupported system poses a threat to security because updates and maintenance is no longer available for an older version of a system, causing it to be an easy target for security attacks.

Conflict with New Technologies:

Another challenge that comes with legacy systems is their incompatibility with more modern technologies. Because legacy systems are typically standalone, it’s difficult to integrate them with other pieces of software because that’s not what they were designed to do. This greatly affects your corporation’s agility and scalability. Rewriting legacy code and modernizing legacy systems with solutions like EdgeReady Cloud streamlines the modernization process so your ERP system can integrate with modern technologies.

Lack of Data Insights:

With legacy systems, gaining data insights and analytics is difficult to come by. This is because the systems were built when big data wasn’t prevalent and processing and capturing it wasn’t standard at the time. Reporting on data with modern technologies leverages the best information available to your corporation in order to continuously improve and automate your processes.

Benefits of Legacy Modernization

Now that some challenges of having a legacy system have been outlined, I’m sure you’re curious about what benefits come with legacy system modernization. Legacy system modernization is a huge decision for your business, and impacts everyone internally and externally, so what perks come with transforming an outdated system?

• Enhanced Business Flexibility: With the modernization of your system(s), your organization as a whole will better be able to serve your customers and produce the best and most automated products and services possible.
• Improved Team Performance: Legacy systems are a hindrance, sometimes causing employees to complete tasks manually or through paper-driven processes. With a modernized system, tasks are automated which allows for employees to be more efficient and productive in other areas of the business.
• Compatibility: Legacy modernization assures that systems are up to date with the latest technologies, allowing integration to be seamless.
• Security: Providing the highest quality of security for you business is nothing short of imperative. That’s exactly what legacy modernization does for your corporation by updating the systems you use to accomplish critical business transactions.
• Cost Savings: Operational and maintenance costs will be greatly reduced when modernizing a legacy system through the automation of once manual and tedious tasks and erasing the need for expensive developers to upkeep an outdated system.

EdgeReady Cloud: The Best Choice for Legacy Modernization

With all the benefits that come with legacy modernization, what approach is the best in order to achieve it?

One such option out there is EdgeReady Cloud-- a low-code, rapid application development platform that leads the charge on modernization. With offline capability, EdgeReady Cloud allows anyone to build applications with little-to-no coding on its visual, drag-n-drop interface. This streamlines modernization of your legacy systems while using cloud scalability, resiliency, and security. 

It also extends business applications such as SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft to remote places with or without connectivity. Legacy applications that have been modernized within EdgeReady Cloud can also scale to any number of users and load in seconds with no infrastructure or people overhead for internal IT teams.

Learn how to achieve legacy modernization and identify ways to enhance your speed to market. Click here to learn more about EdgeReady Cloud.