Companies with legacy systems have a growing issue. Legacy systems cannot easily adapt to business transformation. It almost feels like legacy technology shackles some companies and it’s a serious problem. It affects the ability to be competitive and ultimately businesses that are failing.
In healthcare, we see Claims Processing applications running on mainframes. In banking, we see payment processing applications running on mainframes.
In Manufacturing and Logistics, complex ERP systems are running as monolith applications in legacy environments. Companies over the years depend on prior technology, yet, times are changing, and we need to adapt.
Modernize legacy systems
Legacy systems run the wide gamut of the business and are core to the business. For example, if a claim processing application fails, the Insurance company can lose several thousands of dollars in just a few hours.
Here are solid ways to identify your legacy systems that are out of date and how to move forward.
Identifying legacy software
Legacy IT software is steeped in history and people are dependent on it. They are the “Crown Jewels” of the technology stratosphere because they are essential to company needs.
For example, if you’re in a bank, payment processing is often still running on mainframe resident platforms and is hard to change.
In healthcare, the insurance payors are running their claims adjudication systems on legacy platforms — like in banking mainframes are still very common. They are monolith concepts and are difficult to adapt to new technologies.
Signs to modernize your legacy systems
- Can your app easily and securely provide access to data both internally and externally? Can your app provide lightweight APIs using common standards such as REST/JSON to present access to data?
If the answer is no — then it’s a good first sign your app is becoming a legacy system and not easy to consume into modern ecosystems.
- How easy is it for you to deploy a change to the application? In the current world using strategies such as microservices with a solid CI/CD pipelining strategy, application developers can publish hundreds, if not thousands of updates daily while maintaining a reliable platform.
How confident are you of making a change to the platform and not breaking anything? If you can’t make changes rapidly — it’s a good sign you have a legacy app.
- If legacy systems are deployed on the mainframe, they are not compatible with cloud or mobile experiences. Also, if they still exist on the mainframe, they don’t provide the flexibility to do modern-day requirements from cloud to user experiences.
Legacy applications not cutting the mustard? Adapt!
Axway provides comprehensive capabilities to protect the integrity of your legacy assets to give you the agility to cope with the fast-moving experiences expected by the modern world of tech.
For example, Axway can enable legacy applications to integrate with modern integration patterns without having to change the application itself.
For example, let’s say your mainframe app needs to make data available in an Amazon S3 bucket. Axway can bridge the mainframe from Amazon by ingesting data from the mainframe in a compatible method and then post to the Amazon bucket on behalf of the mainframe app. There are many more examples like this.
No mobile capabilities and your device-dependent? Here’s what to do!
Legacy apps on the mainframe do not understand mobility. However, Axway can build API interfaces to legacy applications and securely expose those interfaces as REST-based APIS that mobile apps can consume.
We unlock the assets to publish to the mobile experience. Normally mobile experiences mean data is locked in a legacy system.
Axway unlocks this data by re-engineering a new system to publish it to the mobile system thanks to superior solutions such as Amplify API Management Platform and more.
Axway provides an agile approach to protecting the life of legacy systems, creating a noninvasive experience between the new world and the old. That’s the benefit! This helps extend the legacy system with lower costs.
Taking your system into the future
As Axway extends the life of your legacy system; we can give you the window to re-engineer your systems to the optimum level.
For example, SAP has recognized that companies want to save money and consume ERP capabilities as a service in the cloud. This means their legacy complex implementation of SAP running in their data center needs to migrate to SAP HANA in the cloud.
Axway can help companies accelerate a migration like that by protecting the interfaces that integrate with SAP on-premise as the back end moves to the cloud.
We provide agility. You will have to do it eventually, but we extend the life of the warranty, so to speak, to help you move your digital transformation experience.
Updating to protect against security threats
Axway provides value because security is constantly a moving target. Legacy doesn’t move quickly, and it’s expensive to stay current. We provide a layer of security for your applications to keep them safe.
For example, if you put data into SAP, we put a layer of security there to protect your company. We protect the legacy on the backend. For every application that is interacted with, Axway provides a “security blanket” around the system.
Keeping operating costs low by updating legacy
By providing the agility to how applications can consume data locked in legacy assets, it can extend the life of legacy applications and reduce overall costs.
Axway manages integration, interfacing, and security. As apps evolve, we protect the impact on other mechanisms such as internal partners from being impacted.
For example, if SAP has a new version, it breaks other interfaces. Axway protects them from having to rewire the interfaces.
Real-world example
Recently, a large Systems Integrator who has an insurance practice where they host claims adjudication on behalf of an ecosystem of about 50+ Insurance companies came to Axway for guidance.
Their system was running on the mainframe and was developed over 25 years ago. Their customers were constantly demanding more features and value from the offering and the ability to stay relevant and competitive was getting harder as the years went by.
They were planning to re-engineer the claims application, but that was going to be a huge undertaking that would take multiple years. They needed an approach that would provide a faster impact.
Axway was able to provide the ability to unlock the data from the legacy claims application in a secure and agile way. This enabled the Systems Integrator to create a whole new client experience that included a modern portal and mobile experience without re-engineering the back-end application. This has enabled them to stay competitive while they continue to re-vamp the Claims Adjudication system.
Time to update the legacy systems
With many signs that you have legacy systems running at a snail’s speed, it’s time to update. Axway provides the technical know-how and skill set for better enhanced digital transformation.
This comes down to costs and agility. Legacy is not agile, and it’s expensive.
“Legacy systems don’t move at the same speed. Axway can fix the problem.”
We can extend the life of legacy and protect the entire system for future use.
Download the white paper to learn how to modernize speed innovation and improve security to reduce costs.