Making legacy technology new: Extensibility without middleware

The business world is the middle of one of the greatest shifts of the digital age. Consumers and workers demand easy to use apps and simple, portable, technology that matches their on-the-go lifestyle. A new generation of tech providers is poised to give it to them, but for many existing businesses or large organizations, keeping up with this digital shift presents a challenge.

On one hand, these companies have spent considerable time and money building with and on top of legacy technology that suits the needs of their organization. These legacy systems help large companies tackle interwoven business processes and handle large amounts of data. On the other, there is an increasing number of smaller, newer, more agile competitors offering clients and workers a simpler, easier to use, experience. A company can’t necessarily switch their processes from their legacy technology to brand new software – a study by Infosys found that 88 percent of systems are legacy with more 52% being core to the business.

Companies will need to work with their legacy systems but need to accomplish this without time, middleware, and expensive solutions.

What can companies do to bridge the gap between legacy technology and new software options?

While legacy technologies might have challenges, the legacy tech plays an important role in keeping large organizations running smoothly. Following consumer privacy legislation, tracking employee performance, and keeping up with sales insights or data management are all tasks that take time and computing power.

Legacy tech gives companies the tools to meet these needs. Although legacy tech may be slower or less streamlined than its modern counterparts, these systems can handle a lot of data and a lot of responsibility. Shifting away from legacy systems can mean spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a replacement or disrupting your businesses operations in the process.

Facing either a total overhaul of legacy tech or the risk of falling behind, companies in the modern age are looking for a different way. For many, extensibility — being able to modify and update the user’s experience of legacy tech or expand its capabilities — is the answer they’ve been looking for.

Extensibility makes legacy technology shine like new

Improving your user’s experience of legacy tech doesn’t mean rebuilding it from scratch. By harnessing the speed and flexibility of tools like Appify’s rapid app development, organizations can add speed and user friendliness on top of legacy computing power.

For example, a large manufacturer relying on systems of record like Salesforce and Oracle E-business Suite may find their aging stack hard to manage and slow to use. However, organizations like this one might be hesitant to replace tech that is time tested and useful to the company.

Extensibility makes it so they don’t have to. When integrated with legacy technology, Appify’s rapid application development creates a modern experience without replacing or removing important data and business history. By creating a user-friendly and more modern tool for organizations, rapid application development not only extends the life of existing systems but also creates a product that feels brand new — without spending millions in development costs or taking extensive time to build out middleware.

Modernizing your legacy technology can be done without middleware

As the world moves into a new phase of the digital age, technology solutions not only have to be agile, flexible, and up to date, they will also need to work well within an existing software landscape. Building on top of your existing tech stack extends the life of the products you rely on, while helping to keep your organization moving towards the future.

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