Random musings on Legacy Modernization: Part 2
In my previous blog I was musing on modernization. Here are two scenarios of 'legacy modernization' I got involved in recently:
Scenario 1: A 50 year old manufacturing company with IT systems dating back over three decades. After the company embarked on a roadmap to migrate some of their homegrown, mainframe based MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) systems to a commercial package, they got bought out. ...And surprise? A renewed focus from Head Office on cost cutting and offshoring, and that’s where my consulting team got involved.
Scenario 2: XYZ.com, the online aggregator of hi-tech books and research data that I blogged about a few days ago. The need here is to ‘modernize’ the homegrown systems developed in the dot.com heyday, about eight years ago.
The examples span industry verticals and in scenario 2, the technology is not even truely 'legacy' but both are cases of “legacy modernization” nevertheless. And this is where one finds that discussions on the topic get nebulous, involving multiple dimensions:
- Why: Why ‘modernize’? Is it the cost of maintenance, is it the lack of skills to maintain systems? Is it performance or deprecation of support by systems vendor? …or any other reason? [Ref: Who are you calling 'legacy'? by Jason Stamper and SOA – Same Old Architecture]
- Source Platform: Assuming you have decided to modernize. Is it a monolithic system you are migrating from or is it a portfolio of disparate technologies.
- Target Platform: Do you intend to build or buy? if so how?
- What is your budget? What are the timelines?
- Who is going to do it? Will you leverage all of your IT staff or do you also intend to seek external experts to help?
No, this is not a bullet-point list that you can use for your roadmap but just a few eclectic ideas you must be thinking about. And in case you are wondering about my advice to clients in Scenario 1 and Scenario 2…well, you just will have to ping me, wont you?
A few interesting writeups on the toic:
- Modernizing Legacy Applications (BPM.com)
- People have been looking at Mainframe Modernization for many years. There are a host of reasons why IT Managers and Business Units are wanting to get off of the mainframe (Huge MIPS costs, workforce skills, lack of agility...etc)... says Jason
- IRS CIO holds out hope for modernization by holding onto COBOL systems
