Most of us do not have the time or resources necessary to develop “net new” applications for cloud-based platforms. Instead, we will need to deploy legacy application modernization.
Some applications can be moved to the cloud using a process known as “lift and shift,” which means that if code changes are made, the majority of them will need to be considerably refactored to make use of features offered by the cloud. The apps are rethought in terms of their design, coding, and intended use on the particular cloud platform. This breathes new life into the application and provides it with a new objective.
The processes used to modernize and refactor applications are presented here. This involves being aware of how to determine the appropriate locations for containers and microservices, as well as understanding how the rebuilding process should take place.
Table of Contents
Containers and Microservices: The Fundamentals
Using containers to “wrap” or containerize already existing applications comes with a few benefits, one of which is the opportunity to minimize complexity by exploiting container abstractions. The removal of dependence on the containers’ underlying infrastructure services helps to make working with those platforms less complicated. This indicates that we may separate the access to resources like storage from the application using an abstraction layer. This makes the application portable and speeds up the process of refactoring apps because containers handle a significant portion of the connection to native cloud services.
The Microservices Architecture
Microservices are both an architecture and a mechanism in and of themselves. They are a type of architectural pattern in which complex applications are broken down into several smaller, self-sufficient processes that can communicate with one another through language-agnostic APIs. This is the core concept of service-oriented computing, which breaks down an application into its most fundamental functional components and then rebuilds it as a collection of services that other programs or the application can use to their advantage.
One of the advantages of taking this strategy is that it allows for more efficient reuse of microservices. While we are rewriting the application so that it can run on the cloud, we will modify it so that it exposes services that other applications can access. Moreover, we can make use of the redesigned application’s services, which frees us from the necessity of developing new functionality from the ground up.
For instance, some systems come equipped with built-in systems that must be maintained. This may cost more than a hundred thousand dollars every year in expenditures. The service-based approach enables us to access and use distant services that deliver this capability. Consequently, you are freed from the responsibility of maintaining services that are available in other locations. Because of this, we can expose services so other applications within the firm can use them. Alternatively, we can sell these services to other businesses via the public Internet.
How to Choose the Most Appropriate Software for the Modernisation Process
The cloud might not be the best choice for all of your apps. This is especially true when containerizing the apps and service-enabling them are considered. Here is some guidance from me:
- Don’t attempt to rework old programs if they were designed with very old databases and languages. It is often more cost-effective to construct these programs from the ground up in the cloud, even though there are solutions under development that will assist in modernizing these apps.
- Applications with a poor design will require a greater amount of work to prepare for the cloud. Containers and services demand that application architectures follow a predefined pattern language to function properly. If the apps need to be completely rewritten from the ground up, starting over can be simpler and less expensive.
- Another application not a good candidate for migration to the cloud utilizing containers and services has a close connection to the data store. You will need to uncouple the data from the application layer, which will require you to rewrite most of the application. Running it in the cloud causes more problems than it solves, which is the case with points 1 and 2.
- The process of refactoring core applications so that they can run on containers and microservices. At this point, containerizing an application and service-enabling it simultaneously is more of an art than a science.
- When working in a distributed environment, it is necessary to decide swiftly how the application will be partitioned into the components that will later be executed inside containers. To reduce the amount of code that needs to be modified, it is necessary to disassemble the application into its parts and then rebuild it from the ground up using the functional primitives.
- Construct data access as a service the application can utilize and then direct all data calls through those services. This will allow you to modify.
- the data without worrying about the application becoming unusable because it will decouple the data from the application components (containers).
- The third pattern is to spend a lot of money on testing. Before the actual deployment can begin, quite a bit of troubleshooting needs to be done first.
In Conclusion
Most businesses believe that cloud computing will eventually become the primary location for application hosting. However, not every application is suitable for the cloud, at least not at this point. Here is where enlisting the services of an application modernization company becomes imperative. When moving to a new location, great care must be taken to select the appropriate apps.
Containers and microservices are two technologies that can make things simpler. This strategy compels the application developer responsible for reworking the application to consider how the applications might be redesigned so that they become containerized and service-oriented in the most effective manner.