A Step-by-Step Guide to Modernizing Legacy Apps

About 70% of businesses spend their IT budgets on maintaining or updating legacy systems (Inwedo). It indicates that a lot of businesses invest in legacy app modernization services to keep their existing applications working.

That’s why many businesses are now moving towards modern infrastructures that are powered by cloud, SaaS, and containers to reduce costs, improve agility, and turn IT investments into long-term competitive advantages.

If you’re thinking, how can a fast-moving business like you can modernize effectively with no expensive mistakes? We’ll walk you through the step-by-step guide to legacy application modernization.

Key Considerations Before Application Modernization

Legacy modernization impacts several areas like operations, costs, ROI, and customer experience. Implementing a bad legacy modernization technique can raise expenses and disrupt business continuity. So, before creating the roadmap, consider some of the following key points:

Integration & Compliance: When the underlying technologies of two systems or apps are different, they can't integrate well. So, when modernizing an app, the dedicated team has to ensure that your application integrates smoothly with existing systems, databases, and workflows.

Also, ensure that the app meets legal obligations with data protection, privacy, and industry standards to preserve security and trust.

Expenditure & ROI: Review your financial situation before you modernize:

• Compare current maintenance vs. modernization costs.
• Budget for development, training, licensing, and infrastructure.
• Identify hidden costs and risks to prevent overruns.
• Create a financial roadmap aligned with ROI goals.

Data Management: App modernization involves the storage, management, and migration of volumes of data. It highlights the importance of security, accuracy, integrity, and compliance during transition.

For successful data management, make sure to assess the current level of data accessibility, evaluate the quality, and review data security measures.

ROI Analysis: Modernizing legacy systems should lead to sustainable returns. Evaluate how it can:

• Reduce operational costs and downtime
• Boost productivity through automation and faster access
• Enable scalability to support future growth

Risks & Timeframes: Map potential risks early:

• Technical: Compatibility, integration, or security gaps
• Operational: Downtime or skill shortages
• Financial: Hidden costs or ROI uncertainty
• Regulatory: Compliance lapses

Steps to Modernize Your Legacy App

Application modernization is a multi-layered process that can be complex at times. Not having a clear plan can hamper migration from legacy systems to modern ones. Businesses need to create a complete application modernization strategy that can lead to successful transformation.

Follow the steps below to modernize your business:

Step 1: Assess and Prioritize Systems

The first step in modernization is to locate which systems need an upgrade and which ones need a minor improvement. Begin by checking the most-used applications in your business.  You do not have to modernize every system of your business; just modernizing the needful ones will give the same outcome.

Let’s understand it with an example:

FedEx faced difficulties with its outdated logistics systems that couldn’t keep up with the growing delivery demands in the business. The delivery business moved its systems to cloud-native microservices and prioritized apps that were directly impacting the real-time tracking and delivery accuracy.

Step 2: Define Business Goals and Success Metrics

Legacy modernization software can easily lose its vision. So, it’s crucial to have a clear set of goals. You need to connect your modernization plan to measurable business outcomes such as increased scalability, quicker release cycles, better uptime, and lower operational expenses.

For example, Netflix replaced its old DVD rental service with a cloud-based streaming platform on AWS. Their objective was simple: to ensure seamless, uninterrupted global streaming. This approach led to business success in terms of availability, scalability, and performance.

Step 3: Choose the Right Modernization Approach

Every business has its own set of modernization strategies it follows depending on technical debt, scalability needs, and long-term goals. However, it’s beneficial to seek professional advice to make the right choice, just like Capital One.

They worked with cloud specialists to redesign their banking apps using cloud-native technologies. This shifted their dependency from traditional data centers and enhanced innovation through rapid feature releases.

Step 4: Select the Right Technology Stack

Once you’ve finalized your modernization approach, the next step is to choose the right technology stack. The technologies you adopt should enhance your business agility, integration, user experience, and goal vision.

Let’s deep dive into it with a real business example:

Domino’s Pizza transformed its legacy POS system into a modern, API-driven platform that integrated with AI and predictive analytics. It turned their traditional approach into a digital-first business, which enabled faster order processing, tailored customer experiences, and AI-powered recommendations.

Step 5: Implementation and Phased Rollout

You shouldn’t opt for modernization just because your competition did. Instead, adopt a step-by-step phase deployment, start with a pilot, gather insights, and then scale gradually.

You must’ve heard of Walmart, a retail corporation. They executed one of the most successful modernization initiatives in retail. It transformed its eCommerce systems to manage billions of transactions every day with DevOps practices, real-time data analytics and microservices architecture.

Step 6: Continuous Optimization

Modernization doesn’t end with deployment. The real success lies in continuous optimization, or improving systems, procedures, and performance based on real-time insights.

For example, Microsoft consistently modernizes its own infrastructure and Azure ecosystem by integrating AI for performance analytics, anomaly detection, and predictive maintenance. It ensures systems adapt to changing business needs and technological advancements.

All in all, these best practices for legacy modernization aren’t only about having the right plan but also about understanding how top names or businesses have already gained success from it.

Why Choosing the Right Modernization Partner Matters?

When option for application modernization, it’s crucial to choose the right technology partner. Many projects get hampered when there is a lack of the right expertise and industry knowledge.
So, before you take a step towards your modernization planning, make sure you have a partner that matches your business needs. Here are some points to keep in mind:

• Strategic Alignment: Aligns modernization with business goals, ROI, and risk control.
• Technical Expertise: Skilled in cloud, AI, and DevOps for seamless transitions.
• End-to-End Ownership: Manages every phase from planning to optimization.
• Future-Ready Design: Builds scalable, innovative, and cost-efficient systems.

At Clarion, we understand every business has its own criteria. That’s why we are flexible like that. With our custom software development services, we make legacy modernization easy and accessible.

Let Clarion Modernize Your Legacy App Systems

Clarion uses AI automation, cloud-native technology, and modern designs to help businesses improve outdated systems. Our legacy modernization strategy enhances scalability, performance, and security with minimal disturbance to your daily business operations.

Our team of A-Players combines deep domain expertise, proven and trusted methodologies to re-develop your legacy applications. Plus, you can access our team through our flexible vEmployee™ model without worrying about the travel or other infrastructure costs.

You can unlock new opportunities, streamline operations and stay future-ready with our AI-driven modernization services. Reach out to us to learn how Clarion can turn your legacy systems into innovative, flexible platforms that deliver measurable business value.