AWS APPLICATION MODERNIZATION
What is Application Modernization?
Once your organization commits to leveraging Cloud technologies, it becomes crucial to ensure that you extract the intended benefits from this transition. To achieve this goal, it's essential for your team to comprehend how to optimize the performance of your applications within the Cloud and plan accordingly.
Migrating your applications to the Cloud without adapting them to the Cloud environment, merely maintaining their past operational practices, will prevent you from fully capitalizing on the potential advantages that Cloud services offer. Such an approach undermines the fundamental purpose of implementing Cloud solutions.
To realize substantial return on investment (ROI), it's imperative to tap into the scalability inherent in Cloud services. Modernization involves taking your current application environment, which might often be legacy and monolithic, and reshaping it into a more agile, elastic, and highly available form. By embracing this transformation, you propel your business toward becoming a truly contemporary enterprise.
Immediate benefits of application modernization encompass:
- Improved scalability
- Performance enhancements
- Security
- Reliability
Modernization Process Phases
The process of application modernization is an ongoing and step-by-step endeavor that encompasses:
- Utilizing data-driven insights to assess both legacy and Cloud workloads.
- Assessing procedures for potential migration to the Cloud.
- Incorporating novel features like containers, serverless technologies, and contemporary databases to facilitate technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning (ML).
At PCS, we advocate the adoption of AWS's three-phase approach to application modernization. These phases include:
Phase 1: Assess
The initial step on your journey towards modernization involves a thorough analysis of your existing application landscape. During this phase, you will reassess your applications portfolio, taking into consideration various factors such as:
- Is it a revenue-generating application, like an E-commerce platform?
- Is it a customer-facing application or does it serve operational support functions?
- What technology or framework does it utilize, along with its version?
- Is it a custom-built application or a commercial off-the-shelf solution?
- What is the size and complexity of the application?
- Are there any compliance or data classification requirements to adhere to?
This comprehensive evaluation of your applications will result in the formulation of a modernization blueprint. This blueprint will involve the categorization, prioritization, and sequencing of applications for the modernization process.
Phase 2: Modernize
With your blueprint in hand, the commencement of your implementation roadmap is underway. The ultimate objective is to breathe new life into your applications by establishing a nimble application architecture. Depending on the specifics outlined in your blueprint and strategic roadmap, this phase encompasses a range of activities, including:
- Defining milestones for your application group(s).
- Enacting the infrastructure using Cloud-native methods and frameworks, which may involve:
- Utilizing lightweight containers.
- Embracing microservices architecture.
- Incorporating both stateless and stateful services.
- Deploying self-service, scalable infrastructure.
- Harnessing automation capabilities.
- Crafting a target-state data model design.
- Establishing a reporting mechanism to track the value delivered, including key business case metrics.
Phase 3: Manage
As each application within your portfolio transitions to the Cloud, it's crucial to begin considering strategies to maximize the return on your recent investment. Enhancing the runtime attributes of an application is integral to a successful modernization endeavor. The management stage encompasses a comprehensive array of components, including adept change management, proficient program management, rigorous quality assurance, and a commitment to delivering exceptional services.
