Category: Uncategorized

Cloud vs Cloud-Native: Taking Legacy Java Apps to the Next Level

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

The terms Cloud (or Cloud-Enabled) and Cloud-Native are popular in the software industry. People use the terms interchangeably, though they mean very different things. How are they different? In this article, we will carry out a detailed examination of cloud vs cloud-native applications. We will check out their characteristics, their similarities and differences, and their advantages and disadvantages.

An Overview of Cloud vs Cloud-Native Applications

A cloud (cloud-enabled) application was originally developed to work in a private data center, then moved to the cloud. Developers customarily use a “lift and shift” process to do this. It is necessary to make some changes to adapt an application to work in the cloud. Such applications commonly use a monolithic architecture. Here, we will use the terms “cloud” and “cloud application” to refer to cloud-enabled applications.

A cloud-native application, in contrast, is designed and developed from the outset to take advantage of the various modern features available in a cloud computing environment. Such an application is built with a microservices architecture. It uses features like continuous deployment, containers, orchestration, and automation.

Let’s take an in-depth look at the characteristics of cloud-enabled and cloud-native applications.

Cloud-Enabled Applications

A cloud-enabled application is a legacy software application designed to run on an enterprise’s on-premise servers. It is subsequently modified to run on a cloud-computing infrastructure in an off-site data center, making it available remotely. Cloud-enabled applications are built as monoliths–if you change one part of the application, you must re-deploy the whole application.

Characteristics of Cloud-Enabled Applications

A legacy application needs to undergo modifications to become cloud-enabled. The nature of the changes depends on the application, but there are some minimum requirements to get the application to run in a cloud-hosted environment.

How to Evaluate a Legacy Application’s Potential to Become Cloud-Enabled

Is your legacy application suitable for becoming cloud-enabled? And if so, what are the specific steps to perform the migration? There is no clear answer. It depends on the pain points that your legacy application is inflicting on your business and whether this migration will address them. Here are some guidelines to find out.

Data Isolation: Does the application’s architecture separate the business logic and the data? If so, developers have more options to store data in different environments. The application is suitable for cloud enablement.

Resource Usage: Is the application structured to use computing resources, storage, and memory predictably? If yes, it would be easy to scale in a cloud setting and hence suitable for moving to the cloud.

Scaling: The cloud makes it easy to scale horizontally, compared to vertical or multi-tier scaling. So, an application built for horizontal scaling is apt for making cloud-ready.

Cloud-Native Applications

Cloud-native applications have been designed to use cloud-computing innovations. They integrate easily with the specific cloud for which they are developed (like AWS, Azure, or GCP). Cloud-native applications can run either on a cloud provider’s data center or on-premise.

The Objectives of Cloud-Native Applications

The primary goals of going cloud-native are to improve time to market, scale, and profitability.

Time to Market: There is a strategic advantage in bringing your ideas quickly to market, and cloud-native applications enable this. Ideas can move from conception to release in a few hours or days. A feature is profitable only when users can see, use, and pay for it. A cloud-native approach de-risks and speeds up change. Software teams start releasing incremental improvements instead of delivering mammoth projects.

Scale: As a business grows, it must support more users in more locations using an expanded array of devices. It must do this while providing the same or better level of service and without becoming less responsive, more expensive, or less available. Cloud-native makes this easy.

Profitability: Cloud-native applications increase profit margins in two ways. First, they reduce the overall cost of hosting. Second, they make it necessary to add computing resources only when needed (i.e., as the number of paying customers increases).

Architectural Patterns of Cloud-Native Applications

Cloud-native applications employ some major architectural principles:

Use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Platform as a Service (PaaS): These applications run using computational, storage, network, and other resources flexibly provided on demand by cloud service providers like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Rackspace.

Use a Microservices Architecture: Cloud-native applications are built as microservices – small applications that work independently. Each microservice implements a single business feature.

Automation: Wherever possible, automated processes replace manual ones. Examples include CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) and automated testing.

Containerization: All processes and dependencies are packaged together in containers, like Docker. Containers make it easy and predictable to deploy and test applications. They do this by using a standard packaging format, enforcing application isolation, and having a simple control interface.

Orchestration: Your cloud application runs on a set of servers called a cluster. Orchestration tools like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm make it easy to abstract out individual servers in a cluster. Orchestration is essential when the application runs on hundreds or thousands of servers. The orchestration manager handles all complexities related to keeping track of servers–starting, stopping, switching between them, and managing them efficiently.

So, the cloud-native approach works well with continuous delivery of new features, faster time to market, easy scalability, and enhanced operational efficiency. It is not easy to gain these benefits when working with only cloud-enabled applications.

Cloud vs Cloud-Native: A Comparison

Let’s now review the differences between the two application types.

Cloud-enabled applications	Cloud-native applications
Architected for traditional data centers	Designed from the ground up for the cloud
Tenancy: You can only host them as single-tenanted instances	Tenancy: you can host them as multi-tenant instances
Setup: Much slower, as the servers need to be configured and customized by the business	Setup: Implementation is quick as the cloud service provider takes care of hardware and software configuration
The monolith needs to be deployed in its entirety, resulting in significant non-availability during releases	Downtime caused by deployment is minimal. You can deploy Microservices individually without affecting the overall system.
Comparatively more expensive to host because of hardware and infrastructure investments made in advance	Pay-as-you-go usage is more cost-effective because computing, storage, and license costs less on the cloud, and there is no need for hefty investments in hardware or software.
You must scale the entire application, which is difficult	Easily scaled by scaling individual modules (microservices) as required
Siloed: Teams work in silos, with an over-the-wall handoff, often resulting in team conflicts and poor quality.	Collaborative: The architecture supports collaboration between the developers, DevOps, QA, and operations teams. As a result, there is a smooth progression from development to production.
Waterfall development: With this architecture, teams tend to make big releases at infrequent intervals.	Continuous delivery: This application type lends itself to a CD process. You can release updates as soon as they are ready.
Security is your responsibility, and you will need to pay for it	The cloud provider provides technologies and controls that improve your security posture

Cloud vs Cloud-Native: Which is the Better Option?

There are many benefits to being in the cloud. So, if you have a legacy monolithic application, you have a couple of options. You can re-host and migrate it to the cloud (i.e., make it cloud-enabled), or refactor and rearchitect the target application to realize all the advantages of being in the cloud (i.e., develop a cloud-native application).

You may wonder which option is better. Having analyzed cloud-enabled and cloud-native applications, we can now address this question.

So, Cloud, Cloud-Native, or Something Else?

If you are going to create a new enterprise application, it is probably an easy decision to develop it as cloud-native. But what should you do if you already have a functioning legacy monolithic app, and yet want to experience the benefits of being in the cloud? Should you then cloud-enable the app, or write a new, cloud-native app?

From the preceding discussion, cloud-native applications offer many more benefits when compared to cloud-enabled applications. And if you cloud-enable your legacy application, it would be a pale shadow of a responsive and scalable cloud-native app. You will not reap many of the benefits of being a true cloud-native app.

On the other hand, writing a brand-new cloud-native app to replace your legacy Java app is arduous. You will need to consider the domain knowledge that has been integrated into your application over the years and include it in the new application. Also, there would be a lot of new lessons for the development team as they need to use different languages, tools, and technologies.

Now, what if there was a third option? An option by which you transform your legacy application, not into a cloud-enabled app, but a true-blue cloud-native app? And that too with a small amount of effort and risk and a high probability of success?

Transform to Cloud-Native Today with vFunction

Such an option exists today. vFunction has created a platform that takes a legacy, monolithic application as an input and transforms it into a cloud-native app. This platform works on a factory model. It uses holistic purpose-built tools to perform a deep analysis of the legacy Java application’s classes and their interdependencies. This helps identify authentic logical domains in the application. vFunction uses a unique synthesis of patented static and dynamic analysis along with AI and automation to do this. Finally, the platform is able to extract actual microservices.

This option minimizes the quanta of manual work required to convert a legacy application to cloud-native, so it’s attractive to companies that own or operate several legacy Java applications. You end up with an authentic cloud-native application instead of a cloud-enabled one. Realize all the benefits of a cloud-native app. Get in touch with vFunction and request a demo of their platform to see how it can benefit you.

Application Modernization and Optimization: What Does It Mean?

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

In 2018, the global market for application modernization tools was valued at $8.04 billion. The industry is expected to grow to $36.86 by 2027 due to the higher need for application modernization and optimization in today’s world.

For a market that is growing at such a fast rate, it is still not as widely understood as it should be. Even today, many organizations are unaware of the need for modernizing and optimizing applications.

In this guide, we explain what application modernization means and why it’s a requirement for an organization.

What Is Application Modernization and Optimization?

Application modernization refers to the repurposing, refactoring, or consolidation of legacy software code–or reprogramming to use an existing application–to create new business value. In doing so, the software is aligned closely with the company’s needs.

The major benefit of application modernization and optimization is that it improves the speed at which new features are delivered. It also exposes the functionality of your existing software while re-platforming apps from on-site to cloud.

Although application modernization has plenty of benefits, it’s quite complex to do. Plus, it costs a lot. For example, if you plan to move an application from premise to cloud without doing your calculations for return on investment, you’re going to end up at a loss.

Likewise, some applications will likely be more beneficial and meaningful if they were rearchitected or re-platformed, but they’re so closely associated with your existing infrastructure and system that it’s extremely complex to modernize or optimize them.

Due to these challenges, the key to performing application modernization successfully is to be strategic about the process. We recommend you opt for app modernization only when it benefits your performance and speed.

It’s important to have a clear view of your ROI before spending money and resources on application modernization and optimization.

Four Advantages of Refactoring That Java Architects Love

Why Should You Modernize Applications?

In most cases, legacy applications are monolithic. This means that they are single-tiered software applications that combine data access code and user interface into a single program.

Monolithic applications are not dependent on other computing applications and are self-contained. However, it’s favorable to modernize monolithic applications because they are expensive to scale and difficult to upgrade.

The difficulty of updating is due to the architectural makeup of monolithic applications. As mentioned, all components of the app are combined together. It’s costly and difficult to bring in more features because you will certainly come across many integration and complexity issues.

Similarly, the apps are expensive and challenging to scale. If a single component of a monolithic app is experiencing challenges with respect to performance, you’ll have to scale the entire application to serve that single component.

An alternative is to modernize the application by giving it a microservices architecture. In this architecture, the application has smaller components that aren’t as closely associated with each other.

Thus, these components can be scaled and deployed independently.

Common Patterns of Application Modernization

Here are some common patterns used to modernize applications:

Lift and Shift: Lift and shift is also referred to as rehosting. It means transferring an existing application from a legacy environment to a new infrastructure, such as cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, and Azure. In this way, you essentially move the application without making any changes to its architecture or underlying code. Due to this, lift and shift is less intensive than other patterns. But it may not be the most optimal approach.
Replatforming: Replatforming is the middle ground between refactoring and lift and shift. The development team does not have to make any significant changes in the architecture or the code of the application. Rather, they make complementary updates, allowing the app to benefit from the cloud platforms. The developers may replace the backend database of the app or modify it.
Refactoring: Refactoring simply means restructuring or rewriting the application. In this approach, you retool some parts of an app’s underlying code to ensure it runs well in a new environment, such as the cloud. Besides restructuring the existing code, this approach may require you to rewrite the code. The development team can use refactoring to split a monolithic application into decoupled or smaller pieces.

What Is Cloud Application Migration?

Application migration refers to the process of moving an application from its existing computing environment to another. For instance, you may migrate applications from one data center to another or from on-premise to the cloud.

Similarly, you may move the application from a public cloud to a hybrid or private cloud.

Why do organizations move applications to the cloud? The major reason could be an increase in scalability. An organization may also want to migrate applications to another computing environment that has a better cost structure or more advanced functionality.

In order to ensure efficient application migration, you need to do the following:

Align Migration with Business Objectives: What are your business objectives? Will application migration help you meet them? It’s important to reaffirm and establish the benefits, purpose, and end result of application migration.
Start Small: Instead of migrating all applications to the cloud, start with just one first. It will help you identify potential shortcomings and risks. You’ll also have a better idea of what to expect once you decide to migrate all applications to the cloud or any other computing platform.
Use Third-Party Tools: App migration is a complex business. If it’s not done properly, it can lead to costly errors that will make all your efforts futile. Instead of taking the risk yourself, it’s best to use a third-party tool or work with outside experts who are adequately knowledgeable about app migration.

Apart from this, it’s paramount to ensure you modernize your applications before moving them to different computing environments to ensure compatibility and optimal performance.

Legacy Application Modernization Approaches: What Architects Need to Know

Technologies Used in Application Modernization and Optimization

Nowadays, there are a host of technologies that can be used to modernize and optimize applications. Some of them are as follows:

Cloud Computing: In most cases, application modernization refers to migrating traditionally on-premise applications to the cloud. Organizations can move their applications to hybrid clouds, public clouds, or private cloud platforms.
Containers: A container refers to a cloud-based method for deploying, operating, and packaging apps. A major benefit of this technology is the greater scope of scalability. It also improves the operational efficiency of an application.
Automation and Orchestration: The orchestration of an application means automating its operational tasks, such as networking, deployment, and scaling.
Microservices: Microservice is more of an architectural approach rather than a technology. Most traditional applications operate as a single codebase and are called monolithic. A method to modernize them is to decouple the apps’ components into smaller pieces that are easier to operate, update, and deploy. More importantly, these components undergo deployment and operation independently of each other.

It’s a Trap! When Application Migration Without Modernization Can Haunt You

Migrating applications to the cloud without modernizing them can be very problematic in the long run. Modernization of application facilitates innovation and allows you to introduce new capabilities into the software.

Due to this higher agility, an organization adapts swiftly to future market needs and upcoming tech innovations. It’s also important to note that when you transition to a cloud-based infrastructure, it will enable multiple capabilities, such as metered pricing, multi-tenancy, self-service provisions, and capacity on-demand.

The modernization of an application is important to keep it compatible with the new infrastructure. It also helps you mitigate risk.

Companies that do not consider modernization while migrating jeopardize their business as well as their customers. With modernization, companies can take steps to improve their security requirements and leverage technology.

More importantly, you may need to redesign your legacy application architecture for cloud infrastructure. The conventional 3-tier architecture won’t be as efficient in the cloud and may result in performance issues, like contention at the database layer, blocking configuration challenges, and synchronous communication.

Benefits of Application Modernization

Most companies have both operational and financial investments in their applications. Legacy apps are some of the most critical applications in an organization. Retiring these applications and starting from scratch is not only costly but also extremely time-consuming.

Alternatively, application modernization provides a more sensible way for companies to benefit from new platforms, architectures, frameworks, tools, and libraries.

Optimizing your applications improves their innate functionality. Organizations can scale applications and yield better results by strategically re-platforming apps.

Here are some benefits of application modernization and optimization:

Cost Reduction: Modernizing your application lowers the amount of time it takes to update applications. It also lowers your operational costs.
Performance: Applications that are modernized and optimized for the cloud are able to perform and scale better.
Business-Related Benefits: Based on the needs of your business, you can modernize your existing applications in a way that better serves your objectives. In this way, you can ensure a better user experience.
Efficiency: With application modernization, companies can improve their employee experience and increase the room for new business opportunities. Application modernization also enables employees to get the most out of an app due to the additional benefits imparted by a new computing platform.

Automate Monolith to Microservice Transformation

What if there was a way for you to automate application modernization and optimization? It would definitely help save time, resources, and money.

Fortunately, there’s a one-of-a-kind platform that allows you to accomplish this. vFunction is an innovative platform for architects and developers that’s bound to transform the way organizations practice application modernization. With vFunction, you can automatically transform your monolithic applications into microservices, benefitting from the cloud features and increased engineering velocity.

Additionally, vFunction eliminates the time constraints, budget limitations, and time consumption associated with non-automated application modernization. Request a Demo today to get started.

“Java Monoliths” – Modernizing an Oxymoron

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Jason Bloomberg (Guest Author - Managing Director, Intellyx) - Uncategorized

Use AI and Cloud-Native Principles for Selective Modernization

In the late 1990s, Java quickly proved invaluable for building applications that depended on n-tier architectures to deliver web sites at scale. The web wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for the power of Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE).

Today, those massive object-oriented applications of the 1990s and 2000s are themselves legacy – and all those Java EE monstrosities have become today’s monoliths.

The irony in this situation should not be lost, especially for those of us who lived through the Web 1.0 days.

Object orientation promised all the benefits of modularity at scale – but now, complex interdependencies and questionable architectural decisions counteract any advantages that modular code might have promised.

Despite Java EE’s modularity and encapsulated business logic, its package-based deployment model remained monolithic. Today, Java EE apps have become an oxymoron – the antithesis of their original vision of modularity.

Are we stuck, then, with these creaking Java monoliths, nothing more than impenetrable spaghetti?

The good news: the answer is no. It’s possible to modernize legacy Java code in such a way that preserves what value remains while moving to a new paradigm of modularity based on microservices: cloud-native computing.

If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it

The first principle of legacy modernization, Java monolith or not: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Just because some code is old, runs on older infrastructure, or was written in an out-of-date language, doesn’t automatically mean that you should replace it.

Instead, the modernization team should take a close look at legacy assets in order to sort them into four categories: reuse, refactor, rewrite, or replace.

Business priorities should drive the decisions on how to sort various software objects. What value does the code provide today? What value does the business expect from its modernization? What is the cost of the modernization, and is a particular approach cost-effective?

Sometimes it makes the most sense to leave code in place (reuse). In other cases, transitioning from legacy to modern code without changing its functionality meets the business need (refactor).

In other cases, fixing existing code simply isn’t practical, in which case rewrite or replace is the best choice.

Resolving Dependencies

Well-written Java code was certainly modular, but its complicated inheritance and instantiation principles easily led to a proliferation of interdependent objects and classes.

Mix in the multiple tiers that Java EE supported, and the interdependencies soon became intractable “spaghetti code” messes. Any successful Java modernization project must untangle these messes in order to come up with a plan for cleaning them up.

Dynamic and static analysis techniques that identify the appropriate groupings of functionality that will reduce interdependencies is essential for understanding the complex interconnections within legacy Java applications.

vFunction uses graph theory and machine learning-driven clustering algorithms to automatically identify such groupings. The goal is to identify target microservices that fall into optimized business domains.

Business domains, in fact, are central to cloud-native architecture, as they provide the boundaries between groups of interconnected microservices.

In other words, cloud-native architectures introduce modularity at a level that is more coarse-grained and thus more business-focused than the modularity at the object level that Java and other object-oriented languages support.

Note, however, that these two types of modularity work hand in hand. Modern microservices might be written in Java, .NET or other object-oriented languages, and thus a single microservice might contain multiple such objects.

Iterating the Architecture

vFunction also discovers interdependencies among database tables and the various objects and services that access them. The platform further optimizes service decomposition accordingly.

Once a platform like vFunction exposes interdependencies and recommends groupings of target microservices, it’s up to the architects to iteratively fine-tune the architecture.

This human touch further minimizes dependencies and optimizes the exclusivity and cohesion of target microservices – in other words, ensuring that each microservice does one thing and one thing well.

Architects are also able to refine the modernization plan following the first rule of modernization above – deciding which parts of the code the team should reuse, refactor, replace, or rewrite.

Architects can handle these tasks entirely within the vFunction platform UI, taking advantage of the insights that the platform’s machine learning have provided into the optimal organization of microservices into business domains.

Building the Target Microservices

When the modernization effort calls for new or refactored microservices, the vFunction platform specifies those services in JSON format, essentially providing a recipe for developers to follow as they create modern Java microservices (typically using Spring Boot) that refactor or replace existing functionality as necessary.

This microservice specification also aids in testing, as it represents the functionality that the modernization analysis has identified. In other words, the specification feeds the test plans that ensure that modernized functionality behaves as required.

Just as architects will continue to iterate on the architecture, developers should continue to iterate on creating and updating microservices.

Modernizing a monolith is itself not a monolithic task. It’s essential for the entire team to look at modernization as an ongoing process that continues to discover previously unknown interdependencies that lead to selective refactoring and rewriting as the overall cloud-native microservices architecture continues to mature.

The Bottom Line

Modernizing legacy Java monoliths by creating modern microservices as part of a cloud-native architecture deployment may represent the entire modernization effort for some organizations – but more often than not, this effort is only one facet of a more complex modernization strategy.

A typical large enterprise, for example, may have many different instances of legacy technology, including mainframe and client/server applications that may consist of many different languages.

A successful enterprise modernization strategy, therefore, must invariably focus on the business benefits of modernization, where the team carefully balances benefits with the significant costs and risk of such initiatives.

Adding to this challenge is the fact that modernization is always a moving target as business requirements change and available technologies and best practices continue to evolve.

Calculating a firm return on investment for modernization, therefore, can be a difficult task – but don’t allow the challenges with measuring its business benefits get in the way of getting started.

What Is the Use of Microservices in Java?

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

Businesses need to respond to the needs of clients alongside evolving business conditions. As a result, many businesses that wonder what the use of microservices in Java is will find this article helpful. However, before discussing Java microservices, we need to explore microservices design concepts in general.

For businesses to keep up, it is essential to have a software application that they can easily deploy, maintain without issues, and that is always available. Even though traditional architecture managed some of this, it had its limitations. As a result, it got to a point where businesses need a dynamic and scalable approach to develop an application to help the future of business.

Microservice Architecture (MSA) is one such new approach. This kind of system design enables swifts and easy changes to individual software services, which is a different approach to traditional monolithic architectures. With MSA, developers can build and deploy applications using scalable, upgraded, and interchangeable parts.

This modular structure can gear business development by fostering the development of agile and innovative functionality in an ideal world; however, decomposing applications can also mirror some models, unlike a monolithic model.

With the advancement of microservices architecture and hype from ballooned expectations to a progressive enlightenment part, people’s understanding of what it can do has changed. This article will explore what is the use of microservices in Java, alongside its importance for digital transformation and some use cases.

We define microservices as applications that are grouped or arranged as a conglomerate of loosely-coupled services. Here are some general characteristics:

· Every microservice comes with its data model and can manage their individual data

· There is the migration of data between microservices with message busses, like Apache Kafka

· Each microservice is isolated and autonomous, functioning within limited scopes that bring together a single and effective piece of your business functionality

Understanding the Use of Microservices in Java

Java microservices is a collection of software applications written using the Java programming language. The Java programming languages are structured using a restricted scope that works together to bring about a considerable solution. The use of microservices in Java is, ultimately, to use codes to engage the vast world of Java tools, systems, and frameworks.

The entire microservices are limited in capacity when forming a modularized architecture. We can liken microservices architecture to the assembly line in a manufacturing company. Each microservice is synonymous with a station present in the assembly line.

The way a station takes care of a unique task also applies to a microservice. It is safe to liken each station (microservice) to experts with vast knowledge in their field. This way, efficiency, consistency, quality of workflow, and output are maintained.

How Java Microservices Work

In general, a microservices architecture represents a pattern of design in which each microservice is a small piece of the pie – in this case, the pie is the overall system. All microservices have their unique function, which is essential to the overall result.

The task doesn’t have to be complicated as it could be as simple as estimating the mean deviation in a given set of data or counting the two-letter words in a text. The idea behind a successful microservice is empowering the system to identify and recognize a unique subtask. Since each microservice will need to transfer its data to the next one, the architecture requires a lightweight messaging system for such data transfer.

There are a series of Java-based frameworks used to construct Java microservices. A few examples are:

· Spring Boot: Spring Boot is a well-known framework that helps build Java applications like microservices. It is effective as it makes the setup easy and the user has no issue with the configuration process, which helps kickstart its running.

· Jersey: this unique Java framework helps simplify the formation of REST web services. With this, communication between various microservice layers will be effective.

· Swagger: It helps build API. It is a Java framework that facilitates interaction between various microservices.

Benefits and Advantages of Microservices Architecture

For everyone new to the world of microservices, this section gives a brief overview. What is the use of microservices in Java? What benefits will it trigger for your business?

Over the years, microservices and their components have been growing in popularity. Based on research, the global cloud microservices market is predicted to grow up to $1.8 billion over the next couple of years.

Due to the benefits of microservices architecture for application development and databases, it is gaining traction. Typically, microservices architecture converts a large software project into a series of smaller and independent ones that people can easily manage. This feature offers some essential benefits to IT teams and their firms.

For everyone wondering what the use of microservices in Java is, here are some benefits:

1. Productive and Focused Teams

The central idea behind microservices is dividing huge applications into small, manageable units. Each unit will be managed by a small, laser-focused team that takes care of their service and ensures they work with the right technologies, tools, and processes.

Being in charge of a specific function will help the team know what is expected alongside their deliverable timeline. With this, their productivity can also increase.

2. Keeping Tabs on Security

The same system that checks for errors also checks all security issues. As a result, should a section of the application be compromised or experience a security breach, other application areas will not be affected.

This isolation makes it easy to identify issues and take care of them on time without experiencing any downtime.

3. Quick Deployments

Every microservice has its specific process and database which guides its operations. With this, the IT team will be spared from being tied with their team on the progress of other applications. Also, there is no need to delay deploying code until an application is ready.

The microservices teams can organize and structure their deployment for faster project completion. Ultimately, the speed and rate of application deployment also increases.

4. Isolation

Another thing that makes Java microservices profitable is their resilience due to isolation. Any component might fail, but developers need not shut the entire system down.

There is the option of using another service such that the application will run independently. The team can correct any issues without affecting the entire application.

5. Flexibility

With the microservices approach, developers and IT professionals can select the perfect tools to help them with their tasks. Building and equipping each server using the proper framework will be possible without compromising the interaction between such microservices.

6. Improvement in Quality

Since their work involves focused modules, the overall quality of the application system increases with a microservices architecture.

The IT team can focus on essential and well-defined functionality to come up with superb code. With this, they can produce high-quality code that works, making it reliable with the ability to deal with any issues in the code.

7. Scalability

The architecture of microservices hinges on small components; the IT team can quickly scale up or down based on the specific requirements of an element. The isolation feature makes it possible for apps to run independently, even with huge adjustments.

Without a doubt, microservices provide the ideal architecture for firms working with various devices and platforms.

8. Continuous Delivery

Microservices engage cross-functional teams to take care of the whole life cycle of an application with the continuous delivery approach. This is different from monolithic applications requiring dedicated teams to work on various functions like database, server-side logic, user interface, etc.

It becomes pretty easy to test and debug with the simultaneous collaboration of the operation, testing, and development team on a project. This approach makes it easy to have incremental development code, which continuously undergoes testing and deployment.

9. Evolutionary

Developers that cannot predict the nature of the device that will run their app will find microservices architecture helpful. Developers can produce fast updates since the apps will neither be stopped or slowed down.

Even though microservices offer a series of advantages and benefits like upgraded productivity with the selection of tools, there are a couple of cons. For instance, the team needs to use various coding languages and libraries, which might eventually affect the team negatively if unprepared. However, teams and projects working on a vast app will find microservices architecture a terrific choice.

Microservices in Java: When and When Not to Use It

Without a doubt, microservices are extremely lucrative. However, you need to assess the benefits and be confident that they apply to your exact business needs. You also need to be sure you have the workforce to navigate the challenges.

For instance, it is important to know if your components:

· Have manageable technical debt and good test coverage

· Can handle the cloud and its requirement for scalability

· Adjust and have regular deployment

· Trigger continuous frustration

Microservices in Java: When You Should Not Use It

IT teams are usually pretty eager to consider microservices since it appears trendy. However, you shouldn’t use it because it is trendy as it might make your firm a victim of Conway’s Law. According to this law, the architectural structure of the application they develop might have a huge resemblance to the app’s creator, not the specific needs of users.

This is a problem for many firms due to their huge team, as changing the structure is not easy. Adjusting the form and structure of such a huge team to meet new architectural strategies might not be an easy task.

Best Instances to Use Microservices in Java

Rather than simply following something trendy, firms should consider what the use of microservices in Java is geared toward and structure their architecture on the application’s specific needs. In other words, developers need to know exactly what they are trying to achieve – scalability or resilience?

An important reason to consider microservices is to enlarge unique parts of your architecture quickly. When checking your application’s needs, you may realize that the entire app might not be scalable, just the essential parts.

A good example is the payment system connected to the app of Netflix service. Ideally, this system needs to be strong and incredibly scalable so that if thousands of people want to make a payment simultaneously, it is possible to scale it up and accommodate their needs. The payment aspect, without a doubt, needs to be scalable, while another aspect of the app might not have to be scalable.

Conditions for Businesses to Use Microservices

Microservices come with significant benefits, and firms that don’t join the train might miss a lot. Despite how promising microservices are, however, it is not the right fit for all businesses.

You need to ensure your business can manage it before using microservices in Java. Here are some limitations for businesses planning to use it:

1. Strong Monitoring

Since each service has its own personal language, APIs, and platform, you will be in control of various teams working together on various parts of the microservices project. Strong monitoring is essential for effective management and monitoring of the system.

You need to know when a machine fails to track the issue.

2. Ability to Embrace DevOps Culture

Your business needs to embrace DevOps culture and practice to be effective in cross-functional teams. Ideally, developers are charged with features and functionalities while the operation team takes care of challenges in production.

For DevOps, however, everyone is in charge of service provisioning.

3. Testing Can Prove Complicated.

Testing is not so easy or straightforward with microservices. Every service comes with its peculiarities which could be transitive or direct. With the addition of features, there will be new dependencies.

It might be impossible to monitor everything. With increasing services, the complexity also increases. As a result, you need a microservices architecture that can handle every level of fault – network lag, database errors, service unavailability, etc.

Are Microservices in Java Right For You?

It is clear that the use of Microservices in Java can benefit your business immensely. It can move your business to greater heights and the next level. However, this is not a license to jump into it as it might not be the best for your firm.

Ensure you understand if your firm will benefit from microservices and you have all it takes to handle it. Contact an expert to help explore the needs of your business and see if Microservices in Java are right for you. B ook a demo with vFunction today to help you understand how it works.

SOA vs Microservices: Their Contrasts, Differences, and Key Features

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

Most enterprise software applications built until recently were monoliths. Monoliths have a huge code base and run as a single application or service. They did the job, but then developers started running into a brick wall. Monoliths were problematic to scale. No single developer could understand the entire application. Making changes, fixing bugs, and adding new features became time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating.

In the late 1990s a new architectural pattern called Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), emerged as a possible panacea for these problems. The software community did not warm up to it in a big way; hence, SOA gave way to another pattern: microservices. The SOA vs microservices debate represents evolutionary responses for building and running applications distinct from the monolithic architecture.

SOA resembles microservices, but they serve different purposes. Few companies understand the distinctions between these architectures or have expertise in decomposing monolithic applications.

Both architectural patterns are viable options for those considering moving away from traditional, monolithic architectures. They are suitable for decomposing monolithic applications into smaller components that are flexible and easier to work with. Both SOA and microservices can scale to meet the operational demands and speed of big data applications.

This article looks at the basic concepts of SOA and microservices so that you can understand the differences between them and identify which is more appropriate for your business. We’ll look at their origins, study what makes them unique, and for what circumstances they are most suited.

SOA vs Microservices: What Are They?

The common denominator between microservices and SOA is that they were meant to remedy the issues of monolithic architectures. SOA appeared first in the late 1990s. Microservices probably premiered at a software conference in 2011. They are both service-based architectures but differ in how they rely on services.

These are some key areas of critical difference:

Component sharing
Communication
Data governance
Architecture

A lot of ambiguity surrounds SOA, even though architects conceptualized it about a decade before microservices. Some even consider microservices to be “SOA done right.”

What Is A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)?

SOA is an enterprise architecture approach to software development based on reusable software components or services. Each service in SOA comprises both the code and data integrations needed to execute a specific business function.

Business functions that SOA handles as services could range from processing an order, authenticating users into a web app, or updating a customer’s mailing address.

In an SOA application, distinct components provide services to other modules through a communication protocol over a network. SOA employs two concepts that have huge implications for development across the enterprise to do this successfully.

The first is that the service interfaces are loosely coupled. This means that applications can call their interfaces without knowing how their functionality is implemented underneath.

Because of how their interfaces are published, along with the services’ loose coupling, the development team can reuse these software components in other applications across the enterprise. This saves a lot of engineering time and effort.

But this also poses a risk. Because of the shared access across the ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), problems in one service can affect the working of connected services. SOA applications have traditionally used ESB to provide a means of controlling and coordinating services.

Unlike microservices that emerged after the introduction of cloud platforms that enabled far better-distributed computing SOA is less about designing a modular application. SOA is more focused on how to compose an application by integrating discretely maintained and distributed software components.

Tech standards such as XML enable SOA. They make it easier for components to cooperate and communicate over networks such as TCP/IP. XML has become a key ingredient in SOA.

So, SOA makes it easier for components over various networks to work with each other. This is in contrast to microservice containers that need a service mesh to communicate with each other.

Web services built on SOA architecture are more independent. Moreover, SOA is implemented independently of technology, vendor, or product.

Features Of SOA

These are some noteworthy characteristics of SOA:

Provides an interface to solve challenging integration problems
Uses the XML schema to communicate with providers and suppliers
More cost-efficient in the short-term for software development because of the reuse of services
Improves performance and security with messaging monitoring

SOA provides four different service types:

Functional services: used for business-critical applications and services
Enterprise services: designed to implement functionality
Application services: used for developing and deploying apps
Infrastructure services: used for backend processes such as security and authentication

Each SOA service comprises these three components:

An interface that defines and describes how a service provider executes requests from a service customer
A contract which defines how the service provider and the service customer interacts
The implementation service code

What Are Microservices?

Microservices architecture is an approach to software application development that builds functions as suites of independently deployable services. They are composed of loosely coupled, isolated components performing specialized functions. Given the ambiguity arising from SOA architecture, microservices were perhaps the next logical step in SOA’s evolution.

Unlike SOA that communicates with ESB, microservices use simpler application programming interfaces (APIs).

Microservices are built as small independent service units with well-defined interfaces. They were conceptualized so that each microservice could be operated and independently deployed by a small team of 5 to 10 developers.

Microservices are organized around a business domain in an application. Because they are small and independent units, microservices can scale better than other software engineering approaches. These individual units of services eventually combine to create a powerful application.

Microservices are often deployed in containers, providing an efficient framework of services that have independent functionality, are fine-grained, portable, and flexible. These containers are also platform-agnostic, enabling each service to maintain a private database and operating system and run independently.

Microservices are predominantly a cloud-native architectural approach–usually built and deployed on the cloud.

One salient difference between microservices and SOA is that microservices have a high degree of cohesion. This cohesion minimizes sharing through what is known as a bounded context. It represents the relationship between a microservice and its data, forming a standalone unit. So bounded context produces minimal dependencies by coupling a component and its data to constitute a single unit.

Characteristics Of A Microservice Architecture

Here are common characteristics of microservices:

Loosely coupled modules
Modularization that enhances system maintenance and product management
High scalability potential with low cost of implementation
Platform agnostic, making it easy to implement and use many different technologies
Ideal for evolutionary systems that have to be agile and flexible to accommodate unforeseen change

SOA vs Microservices

While microservices structure themselves as a series of distinct, single-purpose services, SOA creates a group of modular services that communicate with each other to support applications.

We have listed below the core differences between these architectural approaches.

Scope of Exposure

At their core, SOA architectures have enterprise scope, but microservices have application scope. Understanding this difference in scope enables organizations to realize how these two might complement each other in a system.

Size and Scope of Projects

Microservices have a much smaller size and scope of services in the development process. Also, being fine-grained dramatically reduces its size even further. The larger size and scope of SOA align better with more complicated integrations and cross-enterprise collaboration.

Reusability

The primary goal of SOA is reusability and component sharing to increase application scalability and efficiency. A microservice doesn’t place such a high premium on reuse, although reuse is welcomed if it improves decoupling through code copying and accepting data duplication.

Data Duplication and Storage

SOA aims to give applications the ability to synchronously get and change data from their primary source. The advantage of this is that it reduces the need for the application to maintain complex data synchronization patterns. So, SOA systems share the same data storage units.

Conversely, microservices believe in independence. A microservice typically has local access to all the data it needs to maintain its independence from other microservices. As a result, some data duplication in the system is permissible under this approach. Data duplication increases the complexity of a system, so the need for it should be balanced with the cost of performance and agility.

Communication And Synchronous Calls

SOA uses synchronous protocols like RESTful APIs to make reusable components available throughout the system. However, inside a microservice application, such synchronous calls can introduce unwanted dependencies, thus threatening the benefit of microservice independence. Hence, this dependency may cause latency, affect performance, and create a general loss of resilience.

Therefore, in contrast to SOA architecture, asynchronous communication is preferred in microservices. It often uses a publish/subscribe model in event sourcing to keep the microservice up-to-date on changes occurring in other components.

The ESB handles communication in SOA. Although ESB provides the mechanism through which services “talk” with each other, the downside is that it slows communication. As a single point of failure, it can easily clog up the entire system with requests for a particular service.

Microservices don’t have that burden because they use simpler messaging systems like language-agnostic APIs.

Service Granularity

Microservices are highly specialized. Each microservice does one thing only. This isn’t the case for the services that comprise SOA architectures-they can range from small, specialized services to enterprise-wide services.

Governance

SOA believes in the principle of shared resources, so its data governance mechanisms are standard across all services. Microservices don’t allow for consistent governance policies because of their flexibility.

Interoperability

Microservices use widely used, lightweight protocols such as HTTP/REST (Representational State Transfers) and JMS (Java Messaging Service). On the other hand, SOA works with more diverse messaging protocols like SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), AMQP (Advanced Messaging Queuing Protocol), and MSMQ (Microsoft Messaging Queuing).

Speed

Microservices prioritize independence and minimize sharing in favor of duplication. As a result, microservices operate at a faster pace. However, SOA speeds up development and troubleshooting because all parts of the application share a common architecture.

Tabulated Differences Between SOA vs Microservices

SOA	Microservices
Focused on increasing application service reusability	More focused on decoupling
Web services share resources across services	Built to host services that can operate independently
Not as much strong emphasis on DevOps and continuous integration	The preeminence of DevOps, along with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines
Communicates through ESB	Uses API protocols and less elaborate messaging systems
Uses SOAP and AMQP protocols for remote services	Lightweight protocols such as HTTP, REST, or Thrift APIs
SOA services share data storage	Microservices often have independent data storage
Concerned with business functionality reuse	Focused on creating standalone units through “bounded context”
Provides common standards and governance	Relaxed governance with emphasis on collaboration, independence, and freedom
The use of containers is rare and less popular	Uses containers and containerization
Best suited for large-scale integrations	Best for cloud-native, web-based applications
More cumbersome, less flexible deployment	Quick and easy deployment

Is Microservices a Better SOA??

There’s much more to the SOA vs Microservices debate than we’ve presented here because it’s a highly technical and vast (and contentious) subject. However, we have tried to provide enough compelling information by highlighting the essential points to consider when deciding to adopt a microservices architecture for your project, as the logical successor to SOA.

As the first and only platform to have solved the challenge of automatically transforming monolithic Java applications into cloud-enabled versions as a reliable and repeatable process, vFunction has extensive expertise and experience in SOA and microservices architectures.

Contact vFunction today to further discuss your software architectural challenges and transformation options.

Four Advantages of Refactoring That Java Architects Love

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

For many teams, application development has morphed into an assembly line process, with each person learning to optimize their own workflows to get their work done. However, during this process, there has been little exploration of the process as a whole, and rarely has any effort been put into understanding how these workflows can be enhanced or how each stage of the process could be optimized. Here’s where the advantages of refactoring come in.

The large discrepancy between current capabilities and those demanded by current consumer expectations means that developers spend much of their time reworking the same basic steps or getting out of rhythm. Moreover, research has shown that programmers spend about 60% of their time reading code, with many considering it an arduous task.

Modern application development tools introduce structured efforts to capture some of these benefits by making refactoring a requirement of the software development life-cycle. Refactoring has become the “secret sauce” of making code better, and the ability to build on top of these efforts will only enhance your workflow.

Advantages of Refactoring: Efficiency, Readability, Adaptability

The advantages of refactoring are numerous. Because we can reuse code, we’re able to save time by removing repetitive work. We can also improve the experience of reading our code by improving our readability.

We can improve our efficiency by applying the “infrastructure approach”. That is, we can apply our code changes in a way that makes them faster and easier to understand.

A commonplace for code change to occur is within front-end code, where new code changes are made to accommodate the new data being presented to the user. In the following sections, we’ll talk about how we can make our front-end code faster so that it’s easier to read and maintain.

Refactoring: A Brief History

Code refactoring is a process of restructuring existing computer code for the purpose of improving its design and/or structure without changing its functionality. Refactoring is also a term that has been adopted by the community and industry to mean the process of creating more reusable code. For this post, we’ll use the words “refactor” and “reuse” interchangeably, but there are two major differences between the two.

“Refactoring” is a term that came from the Computer Science (CS) and Systems Engineering (SE) disciplines. It is a kind of code transformation whereby a code source is made into a more reusable form. For instance, when we use this kind of refactoring on our internal apps, we’re making code that can be reused by other teams.

“Reuse” is a term that came from the Software Engineering discipline and means the ability to reuse code and eliminate the need to write a new class each time we need to modify an existing code unit. For example, if we know we’re making changes to a service and want to be able to reuse it, we might introduce a new abstraction that wraps the existing code and brings it within our scope. We can then use our new code unit in the same way we used the original unit.

The advantage of refactoring is that it not only makes our code more reusable, but it also makes it simpler to understand. It is easy to figure out what’s happening in a coding unit if we can determine its original purpose, and it also makes changes within these units much easier to spot. It also provides a way for each developer to easily modify different components of the app without having to duplicate efforts.

Common Refactoring Criteria

In the following sections, we’ll look at some of the popular refactoring offerings in the industry today. We’ll do so by separating out the “high-level” approach to refactoring and the “contextual” approach, by examining the methods required, the principal differences, and their benefits and drawbacks. Then we’ll take a look at the frameworks that support these “high level” refactorings and which offer support for the contextually-based refactorings.

High-Level Refactoring

When considering the advantages of refactoring, the first kind of refactoring that we’ll look at is called “Code Proposals”. Code Proposals are designed to perform the initial transformation of an existing code unit into a more reusable form.

We can “high level” refactor code in the following way:

Write a version of our application that we can reuse. For each of our service classes, rename each instance to a different name. Change all instances to return the new version of the object, without updating any functionality that the existing implementation already provides.

We’ll assume that the example service object from above is a generic instance that wraps all kinds of services. After we finish this, we’ll create a new, compact code unit that contains all the changes above. In this code unit, the instances all implement the new interface, but they still have the original functionality.

Since we no longer need to return an instance of the service in the initial version of the coding unit, we can do so by simply removing the service method from each instance.

Another advantage of this refactoring is that we can see which code units we actually need to refactor. By doing this, we can determine which code units require fewer modifications, which can be delegated, or which may be available from an API.

Contextually-based Refactoring

The second kind of refactoring we’ll take a look at is known as “Code Context.” In this example, we’ll apply the refactoring to an existing code unit, by performing one or more “micro transformations” on a different code unit.

We can contextually refactor our code in the following way:

Start by adding the code we’d like to use to our existing code unit. Update the code using this new code unit.

While this approach may seem more advanced, it has several benefits:

• We can more easily understand what’s happening in our existing code unit.

• We can reuse any code that’s already implemented in the original code unit.

• We can make any changes we need, and then remove the code that the original code unit depended on.

Because we’re not modifying the code units directly, it can be easier to understand the order in which the code changes take place.

Most importantly, we can perform many minor changes to the existing code unit, and then remove the code that depends on those changes. It also helps to eliminate duplication in the new code and adds more details into the comments that describe the changes. This is a major advantage of refactoring.

To improve performance, we can have each micro-change performed in a separate transaction. We can also define the transaction as non-blocking so that it does not block the main application thread.

Most importantly, because the original code unit is still available in the coding unit, we can change or remove the code, and then restart our application without recompiling, or even restarting the server. We can perform this refactoring on any number of code units, each of which we can then reuse, instead of rewriting each unit multiple times.

Refactoring for Reusability

Some programming languages have built-in support for “code changes”, which make it easy to organize and compose different elements of a program in a manner that makes them easily accessible to clients. These languages make it simple to express methods that are used to make changes to the program.

We can use these “code changes” to focus on improving the structure of our code without modifying the API calls themselves. This helps to make code changes easier, by giving us a way to refactor the code that calls our APIs.

Although this approach is less frequently used, it is definitely an alternative to writing generic code and makes it easier to combine code that depends on the same basic data model.

Advantage 1: Container-Based Reusability

One of the most significant advantages of composing reusable code is that we can reuse this data structure as many times as we want. In this process, we can reuse the same code, and we won’t have to worry about making sure that we do not introduce a collision of different code pieces.

It can be tempting to keep a large set of reusable code pieces in a single place, but it is often possible to reuse different components in different contexts.

Advantage 2: Reusable Code Architecture

In a typical web application, we’ll have many different elements. A typical mobile application is comprised of multiple elements, depending on the level of functionality and complexity of the application.

Because a web application can be used by many different browsers, in different clients, in different locales, we must make sure that our code architecture allows our web code to be changed and adapted over time.

When we do code changes, we often need to make several separate changes and ensure that we haven’t introduced any conflicts. That is, we must rewrite a web service in several places.

Here are some ways that we can improve our code architecture to make it easier to make changes:

Reduce the number of configuration locations. Reduce the number of places that a piece of code needs to live.

Make all of the configuration information local. Reduce the amount of configuration information that needs to be stored and maintained.

Make all of the configuration information static. If it’s not reusable, don’t put it in the code.

The optimal code architecture does not eliminate any of these patterns, but it should remove the patterns that cause redundant or unpredictable code changes.

Advantage 3: Reduced Complexity

Another way that we can improve the readability and maintainability of our code is by reducing the number of dependencies. If you want to experience the advantages of refactoring, you have to consider that the fewer dependencies, the easier it is to move from one level to another.

We can reduce the number of routes that need to be added to our application by identifying and eliminating unnecessary routes.

We can reduce the number of parameters that need to be passed around the application by defining interfaces that specify the parameters that the client needs to pass.

We can also reduce the number of components that we have to use by writing reusable components.

Advantage 4: Reusable Components

Programming is a collaborative activity. A well-structured team works together to develop a project. In such a team, we can create reusable components that take a set of tasks, provide an API for them to be shared between different developers, and are testable in all the different circumstances in which they will be used.

A reusable component is a common web component that provides an interface and a set of functions to its clients. A good example of a reusable component is a web form. A form allows a user to submit data and provides some validation to confirm that the data sent to the server is correct.

To make a form reusable, we need to create a reusable directive. An interface for a reusable directive is very similar to an interface for a web form. It defines what a directive does, what arguments it has, and some basic validation. It should be noted that reusable directives need to be tested using unit testing, because they may need to be able to adapt to new browsers, new client operating systems, or new interfaces that can be added to the directive.

Experiencing the Advantages of Refactoring Doesn’t Have to Be Elusive

Many of the best practices outlined here, while not exclusively defined as “programming” or “software” best practices, are deeply rooted in both, and if done correctly can provide for the best developer experience for our users.

By removing the top layer from the stack and creating reusable components, we can remove unnecessary plumbing and concentrate on the value that we are trying to deliver to the user.

By introducing testable code and writing reusable components, we ensure that our developers will spend more time writing code that fulfills their specific requirements.

By identifying and eliminating unnecessary dependencies, we can remove the time wasted in working around dependencies that we don’t need and concentrate on working towards delivering a well-structured, yet reusable application.

With intuitive algorithms and an artificially intelligent API engine, vFunction is the first and only platform for developers and architects that automatically separates complex monolithic Java applications into microservices, restoring engineering velocity and optimizing cloud benefits. This scalable, repeatable factory model is complemented by next-generation, state-of-the-art components, and blueprints, which are architected with microservices in mind and allow developers to reuse those components across multiple projects. For more info, request a demo or contact vFunction today.

Legacy Application Modernization Approaches: What Architects Need to Know

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

7 Approaches To Legacy Java Modernization for Architects

The need for new technology to replace legacy software applications isn’t new. Back in 2003, Microsoft did an ad campaign called “evolve.” Television screens had lots of commercials that showed dinosaurs in business suits. These dinosaurs talked about the need to upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Office.

Older versions, Microsoft argued, had become dinosaurs. This was especially true since most people ran versions of Office written before the year 2000. Sadly, more than 15 years later, IT departments still struggle with the problem of dinosaur programs. Fortunately, various legacy application modernization approaches provide an alternative to completely starting over.

Of course, most of these approaches depend on moving legacy systems into the cloud. And according to Deloitte, security, and cost are among the biggest reasons for this overall shift. Applications stored in the cloud often benefit from the best available security, especially since cloud computing providers emphasize security. In addition, costs depend on usage rather than the right of access generally. This way, businesses don’t pay for what they don’t use.

Using one of these legacy application modernization approaches helps your business

Here’s the thing: While the Microsoft ads of 2003 were offbeat and even offensive to some, the company was making an important point. For most companies, having modern applications and computer systems fosters efficiency.

Most of us know what it’s like to swear at our computers because it is running slowly or run out to the tech repair store because it’s malfunctioning. These misadventures waste our time and often cost money we’d rather not spend. At the same time, owning a newer computer and keeping it updated reduces our overall risk.

If your business has custom computer programs that predate modern programming languages, then you face similar problems to the owner of an antique laptop or desktop. There is a good chance that your IT department spends a lot of time fixing these programs because they malfunction. Worse, you likely need to hire a highly experienced tech professional who understands those old languages, creating a high maintenance cost. Combined with other factors, legacy applications can lead to significant amounts of tech debt over time.

Luckily, modernizing your legacy applications lets the business reduce costs. And, if you choose the best legacy application modernization approach for your tech stack, it’ll make your business more agile overall. With that in mind, let’s look at the options.

Here are 7 legacy system modernization approaches

The best modernization approach should make your systems easier to operate and maintain no matter what kind of business you’re running. At the same time, you’ll want to avoid confusing users or exposing your business to excessive risk. Selecting the right approach should help on both fronts, but each has different strengths and weaknesses.

1. Encapsulate the legacy application

One of the easiest legacy application modernization approaches is encapsulation. With encapsulation, you essentially take the legacy code and break it into pieces. This approach preserves much of the code and all of the data. However, each segment now operates independently and talks to other pieces through an API. By breaking the old, monolithic architecture into pieces, you’ll let the entire system run more efficiently.

At the same time, an encapsulated application is much easier to fix when there are problems. Your employees can often work in unaffected areas of the program. For instance, if the database section works fine but the payment processing won’t operate, employees might still perform other customer service functions. They wouldn’t be able to take payments over the phone, but at least they could solve some customer inquiries.

In addition, encapsulating programs into microservices helps preserve much of the old user experience. It would shorten the employee learning curve and reduce the chances of bugs from unfamiliar functionalities. Plus, the old database information typically doesn’t change, so you don’t risk losing very much if your company is heavily reliant on customer data or something similar. This can be a major advantage.

2. Change the legacy application’s host

Another relatively simple legacy application modernization approach is rehosting. Here, you essentially move the old system into new architecture without changing the overall code. Essentially, you change the place where the application runs. Often, this means migrating your application to the cloud. However, you can move it to shared servers, a private cloud, or a public cloud. The option you choose depends largely on who will use the modernized application.

Where you rehost, the legacy application will depend on different factors. For instance, if your business is a high-security operation, you’ll need a high-security cloud partner or physical server. Examples include AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud or a super modern server.

Of course, this approach has one main weakness: it doesn’t eliminate antique code. This code can still cause problems through bugs and other breakdowns. Likewise, the existing code isn’t as agile as fresh or adapted coding.

3. Change the legacy application’s platform

More complicated is a runtime platform change. Here, you’ll take a newer runtime platform, and insert the old functionality codes. You’ll end up with a mosaic that mixes the old in with the new. From the end user’s perspective, the program operates the same way it was before modernization, so they don’t need to learn much in the way of new features. At the same time, your legacy application will run faster than before and be easier to update or repair.

On the flip side, though, much of the old code remains. That means that, on occasion, you may still need to make changes in those ancient programming languages. The overall applications will be more secure, but much of the tech debt remains even as your program runs on ever-newer operating systems.

4. Refactor your legacy application

Among legacy application modernization approaches, refactoring is one of the more complicated because it fundamentally changes your original code. Basically, what you do here is take the best parts of your code, then remove what doesn’t work for you anymore. For instance, you might have a payment portal that only works with PayPal, but not with Square or other, more modern, options. In this case, you’ll keep the PayPal functionality but also add support for the other options. Or you’ll remove a widget that no longer works so that it doesn’t affect your tech stack anymore.

Here’s the thing with refactoring: because you’re removing the dead wood, you will modernize the system in ways that make it work much better. At the same time, the modernized system will work the same as the old one did, at least on the front end.

On the other hand, you’re fundamentally altering the code. With this comes the risk that the changes will upset other parts of your tech stack. Refactoring needs to happen very carefully and with consistent compatibility checks. But if it works well, you’ll remove the old tech debt. From there, you can innovate further as needed.

5. Rearchitect your application for better functionality

Beyond refactoring, there’s rearchitecting your legacy application. This legacy application modernization approach essentially takes the best of your old application, then makes it better with new technologies.

In other words, you change the programming architecture while stopping short of a complete rewrite. Essentially, this is like a full home renovation, where the house is stripped to the rafters and rebuilt inside. What remains is the basic structure. From here, contractors rebuild something that’s better inside and only looks the same on the outside.

Rearchitecting has two disadvantages. First, you’ll lose much of the old application architecture. If the existing architecture works for your company on the back end, then this could represent a significant loss. In addition, this option might not work very well for companies with complicated databases. Databases are relatively simple software, but it’s easy to “scramble” the data when you change the code. That could be a problem.

Second, if you rearchitect the legacy application, it’ll significantly change the user experience. This can be a good thing in some situations, such as when the system runs slowly, or people find it frustrating to use. But as the saying goes, if something isn’t broken, then don’t fix it. Leaving a practical user experience in place can be quite advantageous.

6. Rebuild the application

Among legacy application modernization approaches, this is the most complicated. Simply put, you’ll scrap everything and rebuild the application from scratch. The new program will have the same function as the old one.

Often, your IT staff will create the new application to have a similar user experience as the old program. And at the same time, the scope and specifications will be the same. Basically, the entire back end will be new, but the front end won’t be much different. Front-end changes tend to be cosmetic.

By far, the most significant advantage of rebuilding is that there isn’t any old code for your IT department to maintain in the future. Since everything is brand new, it should also run like new and not have compatibility problems with other applications in your stack or with company hardware.

On the other hand, a complete rebuild means that your IT department will need to test your new software for bugs. And after you’ve started using the new tool, bugs will continue to show up for a while. As a rule, this means that you can have operational disruptions while tech support diagnoses and fixes those problems. Sometimes, it can take a bit for everything to be perfect.

7. Replace the old system

Finally, you can replace the old application with a completely new one. While this isn’t a legacy application modernization approach per se, it does move your business out of the obsolete software.

Unfortunately, this also means you’ll need to migrate all your old data to the new system. And as some of us have learned the hard way, data doesn’t always want to move. Incompatible applications sometimes can’t share data without conversion. You can lose valuable data that might not be easily replaceable in the process.

For most, encapsulation and migration are the answer.

Some legacy application modernization approaches can be performed together. In particular, it’s possible to encapsulate an old, monolithic application into microservices, then migrate these to the cloud. Many companies use this approach because it’s relatively easy to perform and achieves the dual purpose of moving to the cloud while preserving what has worked well for decades.

Another advantage to this holistic approach is that it’s relatively simple, safe, and inexpensive. Because the programmers won’t significantly alter the underlying code, there’s little risk that you will lose key functions or important customer data. The process preserves the best of your existing tech stack while making it easier to operate and maintain.

At the same time, the encapsulate and migrate approach lets you move to the cloud easily. During the encapsulation process, your staff will write the API and other coding extras to fit well within the cloud. Then, you can operate more securely and use the optimal number of resources in real-time.

Modernization is easy with vFunction

Want an easy way to modernize your legacy applications through encapsulation and migration? You need to check out vFunction. This is a program that, when installed, automatically analyzes your legacy application. Then, it determines which functionalities should be broken down into microservices without your team needing to put sticky notes on the wall. By doing this, the program saves time. Once your team approves the microservices, the program automatically performs the transition and links them via API. Finally, the application helps perform the cloud migration to your service of choice. Ready for the easiest way to modernize your legacy applications? Contact us for a free demonstration.

Why Cloud Migration Is Important

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

The Case for Prioritizing Cloud Migration For Legacy Java Apps

The digital revolution has brought about a new era. The need for an integrated solution that houses and aggregates customer data, channeling it to its best possible channels, is what has propelled cloud systems to the forefront of digital change.

Cloud hosting is one of the most effective web technologies introduced recently. You can use cloud hosting for various reasons, including data storage when a business wants to move all of its data and digital infrastructure to the cloud.

This article will examine why cloud migration for legacy Java applications is important, its benefits, and some of the details to watch out for.

Why Cloud Migration Is Important: Cloud Computing

According to Forbes, despite nearly 98 percent of businesses running their on-premises hardware servers to sustain IT architecture, the COVID 19 pandemic has forced some changes. Additionally, 77 percent of organizations have one or several parts of their systems in the cloud. Companies are shifting from legacy systems and migrating to the cloud to ensure business continuity.

Cloud usage and expenditure will rise according to decision-makers polled globally. The report further indicates that businesses continue to support multi-cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructure strategies. They are also spending more with vendors across the board because of the higher-than-expected cloud usage due to COVID-19 global epidemic constraints throughout 2020. Cloud migration is not only important, it is essential.

What Is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration describes the process of transferring digital infrastructure to the cloud. Transferring from on-premises data centers or legacy infrastructure to the cloud is commonly called cloud migration. Why cloud migration is important is because it moves local-host infrastructure, data, and services to the distributed cloud computing infrastructure. However, the success of this process depends on planning and doing an impact analysis of existing systems.

Some examples of using the cloud are Zoom for meetings or Google drive to store and share content. Companies that sign up with cloud service providers can oversee their entire infrastructure from remote locations. This eliminates the security risk, interruptions, and costs associated with maintaining on-premise hardware.

Necessity for Cloud Migration

Cloud computing is becoming a business necessity, regardless of the company’s size or the volume of work your company performs. It offers cost savings, flexibility, and dependable IT resources. Instead of worrying about the upkeep of your private data centers for information storage, your company can rely on the scalability of cloud storage to develop out storage as needed. Another reason why cloud migration is important is that it increases your adaptability, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership.

Benefits of Cloud Migration

Cost-Effectiveness:

Because of its inherent features such as scalability, trustworthiness, and a high-availability model for companies, cloud computing is highly sought out. Data migration to the cloud is cost-effective compared to on-premise costs such as hardware, software, support, outages, personnel, and evaluation.

One of the principal advantages for companies is focusing on their core business while outsourcing their primary infrastructure services to cloud service providers. On the other hand, cloud computing is more environmentally friendly than on-premises systems because it saves energy and provides green features that reduce the number of physical materials.

Business Continuity:

Cloud backup solutions, such as backup and restore in a business continuity plan, play an essential role in an assertive approach to achieving minimal downtime. Many businesses, particularly financial institutions, cannot afford outages to track and upgrade software and systems. The vast pool of IT resources enables organizations to enjoy the benefits of duplicated computer resources without regard to geography.

Increased Security:

Data is critical for any organization. Cloud vendors must consider the facts of critical information reliability, which is vital in today’s competitive business landscape. The commitment of a cloud vendor guarantees that their architecture is protected and that their clients’ applications and data are well shielded.

Cloud service providers offer a complete security protocol that uses encryption mechanisms to ensure data protection. Cloud providers’ complex data centers are built on layered security techniques, including data encryption, key management, sturdy access controls, and conformity with regular system audits.

Scalable IT Resources:

Most network operators will allow organizations to enhance their existing capacity to satisfy business needs or adjustments by providing scalable IT resources. Some clients may require a simple adjustment to support business expansion without making costly changes to their existing system infrastructure.

If an application is experiencing additional business, demand management can be easily managed via cloud resources, whereas increasing demand on resources via traditional computing environments is challenging.

Challenges of Migrating to the Cloud

According to The Cloud Adoption in 2020, a recent survey by technology and business training firm O’Reilly Media, the greatest challenge affecting cloud adopters isn’t technical; it’s people. This is because organizations must ensure they have the necessary technical skills to ensure long-term cloud success.

Choosing the correct cloud platform

Information management and data migration are critical research challenges. It is never as simple as simply moving data from legacy infrastructure to the cloud. Even after conducting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, selecting a suitable cloud provider is not easy.

Leading cloud market players such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure are constantly looking for ways to distinguish themselves from industry rivals clearly.

As a result, businesses must ask cloud providers if they have appropriate data migration techniques to move data while keeping vendor lock-in and functionality in mind (the ability of software to be transferred from one machine or system to another).

Adaptability and process issues

Change management is essential in these types of endeavors. Training employees on a new system and software console may incur extra costs. In addition, the attitude of employees toward versatility on a new system may be a challenge.

A technical fault does not always result from hardware or software failure; in fact, effective IT procedures and infrastructure operations are at the foundation of digitalization. There is a need to structure, implement, and oversee a plan that supports the transformation in data and process migration.

Continuing challenges to ensure cloud security:

Even though cloud market powerhouses have promoted their latest data security mechanism, the NSA mass surveillance scandal casts doubt. It causes a rethinking of storing all sensitive information data in the cloud.

This lack of trust affects all stakeholders involved. These include individual citizens, enterprises, and governments. Because cloud computing data is widely obtainable anywhere, a security breach caused by poor password security or cyber-attacks can jeopardize personal and commercial data.

The organizations that host their data locally have complete authority and control. They may feel exposed if they decide to relocate to the cloud because hackers frequently target large data centers.

Cost-Benefit Analysis:

A good number of organizations worldwide are in the process of integrating cloud technology as a critical component of their technology strategy. Nonetheless, despite overwhelming cloud traction, cost-benefit analysis techniques demonstrating the business impact of cloud adoption continue to be a significant risk factor.

It can be challenging to redevelop your existing IT infrastructure (server, network, and storage) to fulfill the criteria before migrating to the cloud. Cloud providers bill clients on a pay-as-you-go basis depending on the number of customers and transaction volumes. On the other hand, organizations are not eager to pay even more for system purchases, management, and increased bandwidth costs.

How to Deal With Data Migration Concerns

No matter your organization’s current IT ecosystem, effective planning is needed before embarking on a migration. Each cloud provider has its range of strategies that you can integrate into your cloud-migration plan.

The most important aspect of this process is remembering your clientele and end-users at each stage of the relocation. Following are some of the migrating strategies:

Rehosting:

This is also known as the “Lift and shift” strategy. A migration tactic for shifting a software or operating system from one environment to another – without revamping the app – is extremely good in a corporate environment.

Re-platforming:

It is the process of enhancing an app from its existing design with the advantage of “interoperability,” which allows developers to reuse current infrastructure.

Repurchasing:

Repurchasing is a technique for switching to a different good or service, such as changing from a self-managed email system to a web-based email-as-a-service.

Re-architecting:

This solution entails re-building an architecture design using PaaS’s cloud services and changing software applications, making it ideal for businesses that require additional features, magnitude, or performance.

Retiring:

A cost-cutting strategy in which organizations simply get rid of obsolete services and devices.

Cloud Service Models

Cloud computing has a few implementation concepts; organizations select the model depending on the size of their company or organization and the sophistication of their data. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are currently offering their services in any of the following models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, SECaaS, and DaaS.

Security as a service (SECaaS):

Security as a service (SECaaS) is a subscription-based service that allows businesses to incorporate their security apparatus with a cloud infrastructure. SECaaS is a data security model that does not necessitate on-premises equipment or additional tools. It is deduced from the “software as a service” model.

Cloud security service providers offer presumably significant benefits such as authentication, anti-virus, anti-malware, intrusion detection, penetration testing, and security event management, as well as auditing current security measures. SECaaS protects against one of the most enduring online security threats.

Data as a Service (DaaS):

DaaS is a centralized data storage location that allows users to easily move their information without requiring a high level of data migration competence. The notion of data as a service (DaaS) generates from software as a service (SaaS). The goal of DaaS is to provide data in real-time that is collected and stored on the cloud, irrespective of the client’s geographic region.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is suitable for large institutions that process millions of transactions and have much physical hardware. IaaS provides complete self-service access to and monitoring assets such as computers, networking, storage, and other services. It enables businesses to acquire resources on an as-needed basis. Top IaaS providers include Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google Compute Engine.

Platform as a Service (PaaS):

PaaS enables consumers to use the vendor’s cloud infrastructure to deploy web applications and other software applications by utilizing predetermined tools provided by cloud suppliers.

This model’s physical infrastructure is entirely the vendor’s obligation. The only thing the customer has to do is regulate and preserve software applications. PaaS services include AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Apache Stratos, Windows Azure, Google App Engine, and OpenShift.

Software as a Service (SaaS):

SaaS offers cloud infrastructure and cloud platforms to consumers who use software applications. The end-user accesses its applications via an internet browser or an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), eliminating the need to configure or sustain additional software. In this computer technology model, the vendor manages computer hardware, and software platforms like PaaS does. Google Docs, Google Gmail, and Microsoft Office 365 are examples of SaaS.

Choosing The Right Cloud Computing Partner

Cloud computing is a low-cost solution with many features that enable businesses to operate In an environmentally friendly manner. Easy disaster recovery assists users in maintaining business continuity without requiring a high level of technical expertise, while cloud providers enforce strict regulatory policies to ensure data integrity and consistency.

Scalable IT resources can assist businesses in expanding existing resources to meet their business needs. Choosing the right cloud provider is challenging regarding support, techniques, and approaches. The human factor is also a significant challenge, as it pertains to how people accept changes in adaptability. vFunction makes all this easy. We modernize Java applications and accelerate migration to the cloud. Our products help architects and developers automatically, efficiently, and rapidly assess and transform their monolithic apps into microservices. It’s a repeatable, automated factory model purpose-built for scalable cloud-native modernization. You can get in touch with us today to accelerate your journey to a cloud-native architecture.

The Why, When, and How of Moving from a Monolith to Microservices

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

Distributed architectures such as microservices offers several advantages over monolithic architectures. Microservices are self-contained code that can be deployed independently. Developers can focus on a few microservices rather than the entire codebase, reducing onboarding time. If a failure occurs in a microservice, it does not create a cascading failure that results in significant downtime.

Indeed, compared to older, legacy applications, today’s applications must be more scalable and cloud-ready. Response times need to be faster. Data needs to move quicker. Performance must be reliable. Meeting these demands becomes more challenging as monolithic legacy structures exceed their original design capacities.

Experts expect that the world will generate more data over the next three years than it has in the last three decades. This exponential growth in data processing requirements far exceeds those anticipated when systems were designed ten or twenty years ago. Legacy systems were never intended to run in the cloud or meet the 21st century’s performance requirements. Modernization is no longer an option. It has become an imperative.

The Importance of Making the Move from Monolith to Microservices: Who Wants to Be a Headline?

Recent high-profile failures have highlighted the risks of ignoring technical debt and maintaining legacy software instead of modernizing it. Southwest Airlines had a very public meltdown of its scheduling system. Twitter has experienced unplanned disruptions. While the exact source of the problem may be different, the root cause was old, brittle code that could not handle increased demand.

As is often the case, companies opt for faster delivery of new features rather than performance. They overlook the architectural issues that result from pushing a system beyond its design thresholds. Instead, they accumulate technical debt and operate on borrowed time.

Operating on Borrowed Time

The longer an organization waits to address their technical debt issues and start to incrementally modernize, the greater the potential impact on operations. What might have been an isolated change when first discovered soon becomes a problem with ripple effects that risk hours of downtime. Executives fearing the consequences of system upgrades or replacements wait until time has run out.

Paying the Price

Modernizing software in a big-bang approach is costly. All those hours that were not spent strengthening a system are suddenly required—and at a rate that is far higher than when the original solution was deployed. Most development or IT budgets are not large enough to cover the expense of modernizing an entire application at once. Without an incremental approach to remove legacy code, systems remain in place beyond their “best used by” date because no one wants to pay the price.

Maintaining the Status Quo

Even when modernization projects are authorized, many fail to achieve a successful outcome because the change that comes with the project is too complex for the existing corporate culture to implement. Modernization requires architectural observability and a continuous DevOps-like approach to software development and deployment to create a more efficient and agile environment.

Related: Application Modernization Trends, Goals, Challenges, and Resources

The approach requires a continuous modernization methodology, similar to continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) methods, to deliver software incrementally. It establishes a philosophy that addresses technical debt as part of normal operations. It also used automation tools to help expedite the process. These changes often require a significant reorientation of existing systems. Without a plan, continuous modernization projects are likely to fail.

Being the Lead Story

Avoiding the headlines means having a plan and knowing what technical issues have priority. Companies ensure they are not front-page news by understanding the value microservices principles have for software development and delivery. Most importantly, organizations must acknowledge that successful implementations require change.

Business Benefits of Making the Move

Aside from being the next headline, organizations need to understand the why, when, and how of modernization. Understanding the business benefits that come with a distributed architecture, such as microservices, can encourage decision-makers to move forward with modernization.

Scalability

When a module in a monolithic application needs additional resources, the entire application must scale. On-premise deployments may require massive investments in added hardware to scale the whole application.

But because microservices scale individually, IT only needs to allocate sufficient resources for a given microservice. Combining microservice architecture with cloud elasticity simplifies scaling. Cloud-based microservice architecture can respond automatically to fluctuations in demand.

When more resources are needed during Black Friday sales, for example, order-processing microservices can scale to meet demand. Two weeks later, when demand stabilizes, resources can be scaled back.

Resiliency

Resiliency looks at individual failures. Resilient systems discover and correct flaws before they turn into system failures that require redundant systems. They also identify and correct flaws that can lead to micro-outages. For example, downtime costs a small business $427 per minute—and that number can shoot up to $9,000 for larger organizations.

Suppose a business with 100 employees experiences two minutes of downtime. At $9,000 a minute, those two minutes cost $1,800,000 ($18,000×100). Because resilient systems have built-in recovery capabilities, they can isolate and contain flaws to minimize costly micro-outages.

Microservice architecture lends itself to resiliency, as each service is self-contained. If external resources are needed, they are accessed using APIs. If necessary, a microservice can be taken offline without impacting the rest of the application. Monolithic structures, on the other hand, operate as one large application, making error isolation difficult to achieve.

Agility

As end users demanded more functionality and faster delivery, developers have in parallel adopted an agile approach. They work to deliver improvements incrementally rather than accumulating fixes for a single delivery. Microservices work well in an agile environment. Changes can be deployed at the microservices level with minimal impact on the rest of the application.

If an immediate fix is required, only the flawed microservice needs to be touched. When it’s time to deploy, only part of the application is involved. Unlike monolithic applications, efforts are limited to a smaller percentage of the code base for faster delivery of software changes. With microservices, only the affected code is released, reducing the impact on operations should an update need to be rolled back.

Observability

End-to-end visibility in a microservices environment can be challenging. Until recently, tools were unavailable that consolidated system-wide monitoring into a single view of the software. Instead, operations had to comb through logs and traces to locate abnormalities.

A new generation of architectural observability tools designed to analyze and detect architectural drift now gives organizations the ability to manage and continuously remediate technical debt. Proactive problem-solving becomes possible. Performance concerns can be addressed before they impact operations, creating more reliable applications.

Cloud Computing

Organizations moving from monolith to microservices can take advantage of cloud computing. Leveraging the internet-based availability of computer services allows companies to reduce costs for servers, data storage, and networking. Rather than store and run enterprise workloads and apps on-premises, cloud computing enables IT departments, employees, and customers remote access to computer functions and data.

When to Begin Transitioning to a Microservices Architecture

Moving to a microservices architecture requires preparation. It requires a corporate commitment to fuel the culture change that is necessary and includes new Agile and DevOps processes. Organizations need to determine where their technical debt stands, how they plan to reduce it, and what they want to achieve. Skipping a clear technical debt analysis can lead to costly, confusing, and potentially devastating errors.

Analyze the Environment

Embracing microservices means creating a culture that maximizes its strengths. It requires building a DevOps approach to development and deployment. Development teams should understand how agile techniques work with microservices for faster and more reliable software. If these are not in place, a successful move is unlikely.

Management support is vital to transitioning to microservices. Not only do the dollars need to be authorized, but business objectives need to align. Executives must be willing to collaborate with IT to create a positive environment for change. If the business and technical environments are not established, then the transition process should begin there.

Define Objectives

IT departments can define what monolithic code should be moved to microservices while initial assessments are conducted. They can start with desired outcomes. What should modernization achieve? Better performance? Easier Scaling? Without a clearly-defined outcome, establishing priorities and creating a roadmap are challenging.

Microservice projects should also have business objectives. These objectives may include improved customer experience through faster payment processing or persisting data during an online application session. Whatever the objective, the technical outcomes need to support the business objectives. Establishing clear technical outcomes that align with business objectives is the second phase in moving from monolithic to microservices.

Measure Technical Debt

IT departments cannot quantify their modernization efforts until they measure their technical debt. They can use different calculation methods, such as tracking the number of new defects being reported or establishing metrics to assess code quality. Developers can monitor the amount of rework needed on production code. Increasing rework often indicates a growing technical debt.

Related: Modernizing Legacy Code: Refactor, Rearchitect or Rewrite

Whatever method is used, IT teams should look for automated tools that can simplify the process. Manual processes are labor-intensive and prone to error when subjective criteria are used. Automation provides a consistent evaluation method for quantifying technical debt.

Begin Transition

Once organizations have analyzed the environment, defined the objectives, and measured their technical debt, they can begin their transition to microservice architectures. They can determine which modernization strategies to use and decide how to assign priorities. They should also identify what tools and methods are needed.

7 Steps for Moving from Monolith to Microservices

As companies begin moving monolithic code to microservices, they need to evaluate the existing code to determine which components should be moved. Not every component is right for refactoring into a microservice. Sometimes, teams should consider other modernization strategies.

Identify Modernization Strategies

Every company has different priorities when it comes to modernization. Businesses have sales goals and departments have budgets. When faced with these constraints, organizations should consider the following strategies:

Replace. Purchasing new solutions is always an option when it comes to removing legacy code.
Retain. Some parts of existing code may be kept as is. Based on budget and delivery schedules, existing code with minimal technical debt may remain in use.
Rewrite. Starting over can be an appealing option, but rewriting an entire application is labor-intensive. It’s not just rewriting an application. It’s also re-architecting the existing software.
Retire. Removing software that is no longer needed helps simplify a system; however, the software should be carefully monitored to ensure no functionality is lost.
Refactor. Manual refactoring is too resource-intensive for most migrations. Automated tools are a cost-effective way to move monolithic applications to microservices.

Knowing which strategies to apply helps determine the level of effort for each modernization project. It helps set priorities to ensure that critical code is addressed first.

Set Priorities

Organizations must examine the impact of legacy code on operational risk and resource use when setting priorities. They should look at what constraints monolithic architectures are placing on innovation. When old code makes it difficult to maintain a competitive advantage, it threatens business growth.

With high levels of tech debt, organizations often lack the agility they need to use the latest technologies. Gaining valuable data-driven insights requires cloud computing capabilities. Monoliths are not cloud-native, which limits their ability to integrate seamlessly with the cloud.

Establishing operational-risk priorities should involve more than system failures. IT departments need to assess the security risks associated with older code. Hackers use known vulnerabilities found in older code to breach defenses.

Brittle systems make maintenance challenging. Developers must take extra care to ensure a fix in one module doesn’t compromise another. The added effort comes at a cost, as valuable resources are consumed fixing old code rather than creating new functionality.

As IT departments set priorities, they must balance the impact of the monolith on existing operations. They must also balance the resources required to effect that change. They may want to apply the 80/20 rule—focusing on the 20% of their applications that are creating 80% of the problems.

Adopt Architectural Observability Methods

Opting to move from monolith to microservice means adopting architectural observability methods that ensure migration success. Rather than following a waterfall approach, teams should use continuous modernization. They should rely on automated solutions that work with a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) process for faster and more reliable deliveries. DevOps approaches can facilitate the move with monitoring and observability tools that help control technical debt and architectural drift.

Employ Continuous Modernization

Continuous modernization is an iterative process of delivering software changes. It complements microservices because changes can be deployed to an application based on the microservices being touched. Updates do not have to wait until the entire application is released. Customers receive new features faster with less risk of catastrophic failures.

Leverage Automation

Modernization platforms offer automated tools to help with continuous modernization. These platforms can analyze architectures to assess architectural drift. They can refactor applications into microservices and provide observability as the software is deployed.

Automated tools can exercise and analyze code much faster than testing staff. They can ensure consistency in testing, apply best practices, and operate 24/7. Automation goes hand-in-hand with continuous modernization. Without automation, the iterative process of software delivery will struggle to reach its full potential.

Streamline with DevOps

DevOps combines software development and operations into collaborative teams. The teams work together to deliver projects that meet business objectives. DevOps is concerned with maintaining a system that unifies and streamlines the CI/CD process through automation. A DevOps environment encourages a continuous modernization approach when moving from monolith to microservices.

DevOps teams monitor newly deployed systems to ensure operational integrity. They rely on metrics, logs, and traces; however, these tools lack the end-to-end visibility that organizations need. A crucial part of modernization is observability, particularly architectural observability.

Ensure Performance Observability

Monitoring tools provide the granularity needed to identify potential problems at the component level. They provide information on what a microservice does. What they don’t provide is the ability to observe system operations across a distributed architecture.

Observability tools, on the other hand, assess an application’s overall health. They look beyond the individual microservice to provide context when anomalies are found. As systems increase in complexity, observability becomes an essential part of modernization.

Make the Move from Monolith to Microservices

Moving from monolith to microservices requires both a change in architecture and a collaborative approach that has architecture, security, and operations all shifting left. With that shift comes a reassessment of a company’s culture. Unless the environment is conducive to continuous modernization, projects may fail to meet expectations. Understanding the benefits of a microservices architecture is essential to determining the modernization strategies to use. It can help establish priorities. However, a successful migration depends on adopting continuous modernization methods and tools. vFunction’s Continuous Modernization Platform is an automated solution that delivers essential architectural observability for assessing technical debt and architectural drift. Request a demo today to see how it can transform your modernization efforts.

The Case for Migrating Legacy Java Applications to the Cloud

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Bob Quillin - Uncategorized

With the increased popularity of cloud computing, you’ve likely considered cloud migration yourself. It’s easy to see why, as doing this offers several business benefits. However, when migrating legacy applications to the cloud, there are several things you need to consider, not least of which are the “why” and the “how.”

Simply put, you’ll need to consider whether there’s a business case for migrating to the cloud. And if so, you should plan how you’ll migrate your Java applications to the cloud.

Fortunately, the first consideration is relatively simple as, by now, the benefits of migrating to the cloud are clear. For instance, migrating your applications to the cloud:

· Increases efficiency, agility, and flexibility

· Gives you the ability to innovate faster

· Significantly reduces costs

· Allows you to scale your operations effortlessly

· Improves your business’s performance

Ultimately, when migrating legacy java applications to the cloud, you’ll be able to serve your customers better, get your products to market faster, and be able to generate more revenue.

The second consideration is a little more complex. This is because there are a variety of approaches you can follow, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Moreover, when migrating your legacy applications to the cloud, you’ll need to follow the proper process to make your migration efforts a success and, ultimately, reach your business goals.

In this post, we’ll look at the above aspects in closer detail.

Related: Migrating Monolithic Applications to Microservices Architecture

What Are Your Options When Migrating Legacy Java Applications to the Cloud?

Before looking at the steps you’ll need to follow when migrating legacy Java applications to the cloud, it’s essential to consider various cloud migration strategies. In this way, you’ll get an idea of the pros and cons of each. Let’s delve into the reasons why some of the strategies might not be appropriate for you.

Rehost

With a rehosting strategy, you’ll move your existing infrastructure to the cloud. In other words, this strategy involves lifting your current applications from your current hosting environment and moving them to the cloud. The current hosting environment will typically be on-site infrastructure. It’s for this reason that this strategy is commonly referred to as “lift and shift.”

Rehosting is a common strategy for companies starting their cloud migration journey. It’s also quite common for companies looking for a strategy that will enable them to migrate faster and meet their business objectives quicker. This is simply because the rehosting process can be relatively simple and, therefore, doesn’t need a lot of expertise or technology.

It’s important to keep in mind, though, that, although rehosting can be simple to execute, it might not always be the best option. We’ll look at some of the reasons for this a bit later.

Replatform

When you use a re-platforming strategy, you’ll typically follow the same process as rehosting. In other words, you’ll lift your existing applications from your on-site infrastructure and migrate them to the cloud. The difference with replatforming is that, when making the shift, you’ll make certain cloud optimizations to your applications. For this reason, replatforming is often referred to as “lift-tinker-and-shift.”

Because of its similarities with rehosting, it has many of the same benefits. As such, it allows companies to execute their cloud migration strategies faster. Keep in mind, though, because of the optimizations you’ll be doing, this strategy needs more expertise. Also, like rehosting, it might not be the best solution for the reason we’ll look at it a bit later.

Refactor

With a refactoring strategy, you’ll re-architect your application for the cloud. This means you’ll be able to add new features more quickly, adapt to changing business requirements faster, and improve the application’s performance or scale the application depending on your specific needs and requirements.

In fact, this strategy is often driven by the need to implement new features or scale the application or increase performance, which would otherwise not have been possible with its current architecture or infrastructure.

A typical example of this strategy is where you would move legacy applications from a monolithic architecture to a micro service-oriented and serverless architecture. In turn, this would allow you to make your business processes more efficient and make your business more agile while maintaining the key business logic (and related intellectual property) currently embedded in your enterprise application.

Keep in mind, though, that besides rewriting the application, this strategy is often the most expensive cloud migration strategy in the short term. However, in the long run, and because it allows you to get all the benefits of migrating to the cloud, it could reduce your operational costs significantly and achieve the benefits of a rewrite at a fraction of the cost and time, while extending the current business value currently delivered by the application.

Rewrite

As the name suggests, a rewriting strategy involves discarding the code of your legacy application completely and rebuilding the application for the cloud. Understandably, this process could take a lot of time and effort not only in rebuilding the application but also in the planning. It could also be relatively expensive.

For this reason, this strategy should only be considered when you decide that your current application doesn’t meet your business needs.

Retire

The last strategy, retiring, involves considering every legacy application you use and the value it offers to your business. Those applications that don’t offer value are then retired or decommissioned. This will often require you to either stop using any of these services or find replacements for them in the cloud.

The problem with this approach is that it wouldn’t be possible if your existing legacy applications are integral to your business’s processes. In simple terms, you can’t retire an application you still need to use.

Why Rehosting and Replatforming Might Not Be the Best Idea

Considering the above, rehosting and replatforming might sound inviting because it allows you to migrate your legacy applications to the cloud quickly. Also, as mentioned above, the process is relatively simple, and you don’t need a lot of expertise, which means that it’s often also more affordable. However, as mentioned, it might not be the best solution.

As such, there are a few drawbacks to using these approaches when you plan on migrating to the cloud. For one, rehosting and replatforming strategies don’t deliver the full benefits of migrating to the cloud. This is simply because these strategies involve moving an application in its current state to the cloud. In other words, with these approaches, you’ll be moving an application that wasn’t designed to take full advantage of cloud technology to the cloud.

Another drawback is that it offers very little in the way of cost savings or improvements in agility. The main reasons for this are that, as mentioned above, legacy applications rely on outdated software and architectures. This causes compatibility issues and increases the cost of maintenance which, in turn, impedes your company’s ability to innovate and stay competitive in the market.

Another drawback of these approaches is that, because you shift your workloads to the cloud as is, you’ll still end up with operational silos, and you won’t be able to make your business operations more efficient.

For these reasons, a refactoring approach is preferred. If you reformat your legacy application to a microservices architecture, you’ll ensure stability, resilience, and increased reliability because you’re able to replace or update individual components of the application as your specific needs, requirements, or market conditions change.

Also, when you refactor your legacy Java applications into microservices, it allows you to take full advantage of the cloud. As such, you’ll improve your agility, you’ll speed up your research and development times, and you’ll get your products to market faster. Ultimately, you’ll be able to serve your customers better.

It goes further than this, though. With the tools available today, you’ll be able to automatically, efficiently, rapidly assess, and transform your legacy monolithic applications into microservices. This simplifies the process of migration and gives you the ability to modernize your legacy applications.

Why Stay with Java?

You’ve now seen that rehosting and replatforming aren’t the most appropriate solutions because they don’t deliver the full benefits of migrating to the cloud. We’ve also illustrated that refactoring might be the best solution. But now the next question is: Why stay with Java in the first place when migrating legacy Java applications to the cloud? After all, isn’t Java declining in popularity?

Sure, in some programming language index rankings, Java might have dropped a few spots. But, in RedMonk’s recent programming language popularity rankings, Java surged up the rankings to share the second spot with Python. This is simply because Java still continues to impress with its performance and its ability to adapt to a continuously evolving technology landscape.

In addition, Java has several other things going for it. For instance, Java:

Is easy to learn with a robust and predictable set of rules that govern code structure.
Has a rich set of APIs that allow it to be used for a variety of purposes, from web development to complex applications and cloud-native microservices.
Has an extensive tool ecosystem that makes software development with Java easier and simplifies development and deployment.
Is continuing to evolve to keep up with the changing technology landscape while still ensuring backward compatibility with earlier releases. This is evident through its continuous release cycle incorporating both long-term support (LTS) and non-LTS releases. It was also recently announced that the LTS release cadence will be reduced from three years to two years.

Considering the above, and its increased popularity, it’s clear that Java has secured its place in the software development world for some time to come.

Related: Succeed with an Application Modernization Roadmap

The Steps You’ll Need To Follow

Now that we’ve looked at the approach you’ll need to follow when migrating legacy Java applications to the cloud, we’ve, in a sense, looked at one part of the “how.” But it’s important to delve deeper, so we’ll look at the other part in more detail.

Simply put, when migrating to the cloud, a gradual approach is vital. In other words, you shouldn’t attempt a complete modernization across all the layers of your legacy applications at once.

So, for example, let’s assume that you have a legacy application that you want to modernize and migrate to the cloud. In this case, you’ll need to migrate the application’s front end, business logic, and database.

The best way to do this is by starting with the business logic. Here, you’ll be able to see what parts of the business logic performs what functions. You’ll then be able to decouple these from the monolithic application and break each into separate

services.

The tools mentioned earlier can help you assess your application’s readiness for modernization, which parts of your application to prioritize first, and identify the optimal business-domain microservices. During the process, they can also help you manage the modernization process, which allows you to accelerate cloud-native migrations.

You’ll then be able to build micro front ends for each service, and, once done, you can migrate the database for your application. Today’s technologies can help you simplify this process through database dependency discovery which discovers, detects, and reports which database tables are used by which services when decomposing a monolithic application.

Ultimately, in this way, you’ll take a structured and systematic approach to modernize your application.

Future-Proofing Your Business

Simply put, when migrating legacy Java applications to the cloud, you’ll get to enjoy a wealth of benefits that not only makes your business more efficient, but also allows you to serve your customers better, innovate faster, and generate more revenue.

The thing is, to get all these benefits, you’ll need to use the right approach and process to ensure that the modernization of your applications is a success. Hopefully, this post helped illustrate this process and steps in more detail.

When looking for a platform to make this process easier, vFunction is the perfect fit. Our platform for developers and architects is compatible with all major Java platforms. It intelligently and automatically transforms complex monolithic Java applications into microservices that allow you to take advantage of the benefits of migrating to the cloud.

To learn more about our platform and how it can help you, why not request a demo today.

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