Tech migration projects can be costly, daunting and fraught with risk — and when things go wrong it’s generally the IT team that gets the blame. So it’s hardly surprising that CIOs might look at their company’s ageing but functional tech infrastructure and ask whether migration is really worth it.
The answer, however, is a resounding yes. While migration and modernisation projects are often challenging, inaction is the bigger threat to long-term business success.
Legacy technology can burden companies with spiralling costs from third-party vendors and hobble their ability to move quickly in a competitive market. Other issues include technical debt and skills challenges, as people who understand how to work with older systems retire or leave the company.
“Every day, each application becomes older and harder to maintain. The more effort it takes to migrate, the greater your risk ‚” says Thilo Rockmann, CEO of LzLabs, which transforms existing IT by placing it in a modern computing environment.
Many IT leaders are aware that legacy technologies are holding back businesses. Indeed, a recent survey by ISG and LzLabs found that 95% of tech leaders are concerned about the implications of not modernising mainframe applications and data.
But the complexity of incumbent systems, or lost source-code issues, often means migration plans are repeatedly kicked into the long grass.
The longer you wait, the more effort it takes to migrate and the more difficult it becomes
Respondents to the survey also highlighted cultural resistance and regulatory compliance as significant barriers to migration. These issues can lead to a state of paralysis. CIOs and other C-suite leaders may acknowledge the need to update legacy systems, but the necessary support and resources for the journey – or even agreement on the direction of travel – never materialise.
“There are multiple barriers and varying interests that ultimately paralyse the entire organisation,” says Rockmann. “Everyone wants to have a voice, get involved and exert influence, but this desire for involvement may not lead to swift action on what the business actually needs.”
The cycle of change
Overcoming this paralysis is the first step towards achieving greater agility, winning and retaining more customers, embracing modern applications and exploiting the full power of data. And, it may not be as challenging as it seems.
One assumption that can prevent the migration of systems and applications to new environments is that it must be achieved in a single huge leap. Instead, migration is a continual process of change and evolution.
“The key issue in our industry is that moving beyond legacy technology is not a one-time project,” says Rockmann. “It’s a continuous cycle, as what is new today becomes outdated tomorrow.”
Viewed this way, legacy technology is not bad per se. It may simply be that the organisation’s fundamental beliefs or business strategies have evolved, and systems and applications that were once cutting-edge are now holding it back.
“A new system isn’t necessarily better than the old one; it simply meets the needs of the current environment more effectively at this time,” explains Rockmann. It is important therefore to plan for future changes to the organisation’s tech needs.
But trying to anticipate all of these changes isn’t the best way to approach migration. “If you plan too far in advance, your goals may appear as insurmountable obstacles, potentially stifling innovation,” Rockmann explains.
It’s also important to understand that a migration project should unlock the value embedded in the company’s existing application portfolios – not discard the foundations.
Rockmann points to a vehicle manufacturer that LzLabs is currently working with. “They have an application that manages all the logistics for bringing parts to the assembly line, which they’ve built themselves. No matter what they plan to build tomorrow – motorcycles, tractors and so on – or whether they want to implement AI, that application will still have value.”
An incremental approach
LzLab’s approach to technology migration and modernisation focuses on four core principles: preserving what needs to be preserved, changing only what needs changing, maintaining interoperability and using open-source technologies.
These principles underpin its software-defined mainframe (SDM), which uses binary rehosting – a means of migrating legacy mainframe applications to the cloud without the need to rewrite or recompile the application.
It’s a low-risk, low-cost way of moving valuable applications and data so they once again serve the business’s needs, enhancing rather than hindering innovation. Using binary-compatible interfaces also enables an iterative and incremental approach to migration.
For instance, a global automotive manufacturer recently transitioned its business-critical processes and applications step by step from its legacy mainframe to the SDM.
This was necessary owing to mainframe overload caused by resource-hungry applications, sluggish application responses to sales and customer requests and a shrinking skills base. But the goal was always to offload and functionally complement the mainframe rather than completely replace it.
“You’ve got to make sure that you preserve what needs to be preserved and only change what needs to be changed, focusing on a difference to the business,” says Rockmann.
“Nobody would say, ‘All Londoners need to move out of London so we can completely redo the whole tube system, and once you return, it’s all going to be new and shiny’,” he says. “There’s constant change, constant construction. IT is not so different in this sense.”
Some of the key results from the automotive manufacturer’s migration project include enhanced service levels for customers, increased scalability of capacities and a significant reduction in mainframe-operating costs.
Thanks to careful planning and proper execution, the company’s business-critical applications and data are now fit for the future rather than stuck in the past.
For more information on overcoming the legacy tech burden visit: www.lzlabs.com
