Legacy code did the job in its days but may burden many businesses trying to innovate. Consequently, more companies are moving to the cloud as time passes.
Modernising your applications onto a cloud-native platform will make your code stronger, faster, easier to maintain, and less costly.
You have different options when choosing a cloud migration strategy.
In this article, we discuss one of the 5Rs of cloud rationalisation: replatforming.
After reading this article, you will know:
And much more, so let’s get started!
Replatforming is a cloud migration strategy where applications are moved from a legacy platform to the cloud, with a few changes to the codebase to take advantage of cloud capabilities.
In other words, we move a business’ digital operations from old, obsolete and outdated platforms to new ones - the cloud.
As opposed to the "Lift and Shift" (rehosting) strategy, replatform means transferring existing code (with minimal changes) to a new infrastructure and reshaping it for that environment.
This is done without changing its core architecture or the core functionality and features of applications. So it is not like a massive overhaul or where you need to rebuild from scratch (such as in refactoring or rearchitecting).
“Replatform minimises changes and reduces the risk associated with migrating to a new environment, striking the perfect balance between minimal disruption and gaining cloud efficiencies.”
The main goal of replatforming is to benefit from new (cloud) platform features and enhance the application's performance while increasing scalability, improving security and lowering costs. This can include various technologies like operating systems (OS), databases, middleware, and applications.
Replatforming is crucial for companies that want to keep up their IT infrastructure with the latest technological developments. Obsolete and outdated legacy systems often don’t allow you to scale your business and, here and there, fall short in security. Many decide to replatform so that more value can be delivered to customers.
When you replatform, your performance will increase, and better security measures will be gained. It allows you to streamline processes better, optimise workflows, automate, and moreover; improve the user experience!
And do not forget that you can integrate with other systems more efficiently. By moving your outdated systems to new, scalable and flexible platforms, you can adapt better to the needs and demands of your customers.
The process for replatforming differs for each business, sector and business requirements. Also, it depends on the type of application. Generally speaking, you can adopt several approaches for replatforming.
For any replatforming process to succeed, careful planning and following a common framework are required. Let’s discuss such a framework:
In every case, determining your business needs and goals is the first step.
Be sure to have this clear at the start. You need to assess the current system as well. Every app and platform modernisation should be centred around business needs. You need the knowledge to determine which parts of the IT environment you will migrate to the cloud, in which order, and in which way.
For instance: an on-premise e-commerce platform might replatform to a cloud-based solution to handle peak shopping periods as the current on-premises system may struggle with traffic surges and integrating third-party services like payment gateways. Replatforming would improve performance and flexibility without a complete rebuild.
After identifying your business needs, you can evaluate the financial implications of replatforming. You should compare the costs of staying on the current platform against moving to a new one.
Consider migration expenses, ongoing operational costs, and potential savings from improved efficiency and reduced hardware investments.
Next, choose a platform that suits your business needs and infrastructure. For instance, replatforming to Microsoft Azure makes sense when working with Microsoft products.
Many retail businesses that are e-commerce opt for a headless platform when platforms like Magento don’t offer enough flexibility or when, for example, Shopify is not big enough.
When you have a clear view of what to replatform, what to change and where to migrate, you can take the next migration steps. You may require changes in technology to ensure the application is optimised for the new platform. Think about updating code dependencies.
You can also migrate platforms by containerisation. This can be for some parts of the app when decoupling the application into microservices. It enables highly crucial elements to be transferred more quickly.
Assess the dependencies and integrations and ensure compatibility with the new environment, especially third-party services and APIs. Make sure to address any networking changes, configuration changes, etc.
Migrate the app to the staging environment when you have the infrastructure in place and have figured it all out to make the system workable on the new platform.
Before fully transitioning, you should test the app. Make sure to check whether functions work accordingly on the new platform. Also, this is the right time to improve and fix any problems that may occur.
After validation, you can go into total production and deploy the applications on the new platform. To ensure everything runs as desired, monitor the performance and test, and make iterative improvements to maintain optimal results.
The migration process should be done in phases, as adding a layer that handles communication between front-end and back-end systems is crucial. This phased approach ensures a smoother transition and minimises disruption, leading to a more successful replatforming.
How can replatforming benefit your organisation if it does not make these profound architectural changes? That’s what we will discuss here.
We’ve listed the benefits below:
Replatforming means optimising parts of your application and using cloud capabilities. This will reduce your long-term operational costs and improve the return on investment (ROI).
You can use managed services and optimised storage to save expenses over time. Imagine the costs you could save when you switch to managed service from a self-managed database. On top of that, it eliminates the need for manual maintenance and frees up resources for other tasks.
This is one of the biggest drivers for organisations when choosing to replatform the application.
"80% of organisations report enhanced operational performance after migrating to the cloud."
By doing so, we can enhance the following:
And this is all without needing a massive overhaul or rebuild from scratch. Cloud Native services like container orchestration or managed databases can improve your application’s efficiency.
For instance: A retail company can move migrate its database to Azure SQL Database when the demand for the app grows – this can be during peak shopping seasons (like Christmas or Black Friday). So, the company can add more resources (CPU, memory, storage) when needed or scale down when the traffic peaks are over (after Christmas or Black Friday).
This allows businesses of all sizes to scale dynamically, with the flexibility for applications to grow from serving a handful of users to millions. And all this without requiring major code rewrites.
Replatforming improves security and compliance since cloud providers have built-in security features. These include identity management (access controls), encryption, data backup and compliance certifications (think ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR).
A financial services company can move its sensitive data to a cloud provider with strong encryption and industry compliance. This will make the data more secure and compliant.
Replatforming offers a quicker migration than a complete rearchitecting while being more involved than a “lift and shift”. It strikes the perfect balance between speed and optimisation.
A media company replatforming its content delivery network (CDN) to a cloud-based solution like Azure Content Delivery Network (Azure CDN) can significantly enhance content delivery speed and reliability.
More availability is another benefit of replatforming. By moving to cloud infrastructure, applications can take advantage of distributed environments without downtime or service interruption. Built-in redundancy, automated failover and load balancing across multiple data centres means even if hardware fails or a region goes down, applications can keep running without interruption.
This means more operational continuity, customer satisfaction and reduced financial losses due to downtime. It means better user experience, less service disruption and reputation protection. It means meeting service level agreements (SLAs) and critical systems that are always up and running even during peak times or outages.
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Even though replatforming saves you cost in the long term, the effort and investment are higher than rehosting (lift and shift). It means a more time-intensive process and more resources are needed to modify and test applications. Examples are updating the application to use cloud native services and investing in training staff.
Replatforming can get quite complex as you must fully understand the cloud environment and your existing application. Updating an application to use a managed database service might mean changing how it connects to the database. This requires careful planning and thorough testing to ensure smooth operation.
Compatibility issues with existing apps and systems are a common problem when replatforming. This is why thorough testing and validation is key before going into production. This will save you from unwanted downtime or system errors.
For example: moving an app, especially to cloud-based messaging services (like Azure Service Bus) may require changes in how messages are sent, received and processed. This can be switching from synchronous communication methods (e.g. HTTP) to asynchronous ones (e.g. message queues).
This can cause integration issues if other systems (legacy) aren’t built to handle queued or delayed messages.
Yes, replatforming gives you many benefits. However, replatforming might not use all the cloud benefits, unlike refactoring or re-architecting. Some cloud native features are still out of reach without further changes.
An application replatformed to use a managed database might still miss out on serverless computing or full auto-scaling and therefore not be fully efficient.
There are some situations wherein replatforming can help. These are:
By considering these points, you can determine if replatforming aligns with your specific needs and goals for cloud migration and make the right decision.
It is the ideal middle ground for those who want to innovate but don’t have time, budget or resources for the more intense and costly options like rearchitecting or rebuilding.
Even though the benefits of replatforming are huge, they do come with some challenges.
Switching platforms can cause downtime or reduced functionality, which impacts business.
This risk can be minimised by:
This phased approach ensures critical business functions are operational during the transition.
Replatforming can require the new platform to integrate with existing systems, which can cause compatibility issues if the new platform doesn’t naturally fit with the existing tech stack.
39% of organisations have had difficulties with integration during their cloud migrations. Integration issues can also cause governance challenges.
Organisations should thoroughly assess integration needs, plan correctly, and test robustly to confirm platform compatibility.
Replatforming involves moving massive amounts of data between platforms, which can be complex, especially if the data structures differ. There’s always a risk of data loss or corruption during this process.
"36% of organisations see data loss as a burden when migrating to the cloud."
Organisations should plan the migration upfront, test in-depth, and use automated tools for secure and reliable data migration to mitigate this.
Replatforming often exposes technical debt. Technical debt is when development teams choose quick and easy fixes over well structured long term solutions and it results in a "debt" that needs to be paid off with future work. This can lead to long term costs and complexity if not managed properly.
The key to overcoming this is prioritising eliminating existing technical debt during replatforming and ensuring that all updates are fully documented.
Scope creep happens when the project grows beyond its original scope, which causes delays and extra costs. Prevent this by clearly defining project goals and managing changes with a strict process.
Adopting new platforms may require new skills and knowledge your existing team doesn’t have. This can cause delays during the transition.
You can solve this by training correctly and bringing in external expertise. Upskilling your internal team should be a priority so they are comfortable working with the new platform.
Replatforming has upfront costs including licensing, infrastructure setup and training. Do a cost-benefit analysis beforehand to ensure the long term benefits of scalability, flexibility and cost savings outweigh the initial investment. Identify areas where cloud based solutions can reduce OpEx costs to make replatforming a financial success.
The process of replatforming can cause resistance within organisations as transformation may disrupt processes and workflows. Workers will have drawbacks when learning new systems and may fear losing control over their tasks or struggle with new tools.
To solve this, clear communication, early involvement, and training should be provided to help staff adapt.
Modernise your legacy systems and boost performance, scalability, and efficiency. Whether you're replatforming, updating infrastructure, we can help!
Application Modernisation by InterceptOne of the companies that replatformed is Hiscox, an insurance firm. They replatformed its core systems onto Microsoft Azure to increase agility.
They implemented DevOps practices to improve operations. With Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) in place, Hiscox can release new software every two weeks.
Azure’s managed services and features have improved their disaster recovery, streamlined operations, and given them enhanced flexibility across regions.
Airbnb replatformed to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for better efficiency and scalability. They moved databases to managed services like Amazon RDS to free up resources and gain double the performance. Databases are now scaled up to 4x what they were before. This allows them to focus on their business and provide a better user experience.
As you grow, so do your customers’ needs. Their expectations such as faster performance, smooth interfaces, improved user experiences etc. get more pressing. And your legacy systems and old infrastructure hold you back.
Replatforming helps meet these demands and can really benefit your business by updating your tech for better service and efficiency. In return you’ll get better performance and more security and integration.
Most importantly: you will meet your customers’ ever-changing needs.
But remember, careful planning and execution are key to overcoming obstacles.
What does it mean to replatform?
What is E-Commerce replatforming?
What are the risks of replatforming?
How long does replatforming take?
How much does it cost to replatform?
What is the difference between refactoring and replatforming?
Why replatform a website?
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