3 Minute Read: Legacy System Modernisation with Greenlake

3 Minute Read: Legacy System Modernisation with Greenlake

Applications are central to almost every business process. Applications need to be flexible, reliable, and secure to be effective and profitable. Improving the underlying infrastructure helps ensure that these functions (including servers, mainframes, and data storage or cloud) are continually available.

Application modernisation necessitates organisational changes, such as shifting some resources from on-premise deployments to cloud deployments. Often, legacy infrastructure may be perceived as being too old and too difficult to modernise, especially where that infrastructure sits in ERP (enterprise resource planning). ERP is at the heart of business operations and complex modernisation projects can have the potential to disrupt business processes.

There are several approaches to modernisation depending on what your business requirements are.

Pathways to updated infrastructure

System modernisation is usually initiated when opportunities for improvement are identified. The main drivers often involve business fit, value and agility, cost savings, reduced complexity and risk aversion. Where legacy infrastructure becomes too costly and complex to maintain, or puts the company’s security at risk, these are common reasons for businesses to update.

Once the opportunity for improvement has been identified, businesses can then evaluate modernisation options. According to Gartner, there are seven options that have been ranked by ease of implementation:

  1. Encapsulate – Making applications available as services via an API.
  2. Rehost – Redeployment of the application component to other physical, virtual or cloud infrastructure without further modification.
  3. Replatform – Migration to a new runtime platform with minimal changes to the code (not the code structure, features or functions).
  4. Refactor – Restructure and optimisation of the existing code, removing code debt and improving unbeneficial attributes.
  5. Rearchitect – Altering the code to shift it to a new application architecture.
  6. Rebuild – Completely redesigning the application component while preserving its specifications.
  7. Replace – Entirely removing the former application component and replacing it while considering new needs and requirements.

An easier implementation poses less risk and impact on business processes, while harder implementations pose more risk and impact.

Choosing the best fit modernisation strategy will depend on factors such as the organisation’s existing technology, architecture, technical capabilities and risk appetite.

At its core, modernisation means either rearchitecting, rebuilding or replacing. To successfully complete any of these, businesses need the right underlying IT model to ensure business operations continue with minimal disruption.

HPE Greenlake

Regardless of which strategy you choose, HPE Greenlake is a consumption-based IT model which can support your transformation. By providing a true hybrid cloud experience, it enables IT teams to manage their on-premise and cloud-based systems and data from one intuitive portal.

HPE GreenLake even allows the organisation to choose specific software version levels in the environment and when (or if) they are updated. This is crucial for organisations with infrastructure that may be several firmware versions behind.

HPE GreenLake brings the modern cloud experience to legacy apps, data and workloads in your locations with self-serve, pay-per-use, scalability while being managed as a service by HPE and its partners.

A digital transformation accelerator, HPE GreenLake is the one platform that brings the cloud experience to apps and data where they live. It transforms traditional, non-cloud native apps with an open, container-first approach and enables businesses to create their own AI/ML competency in-house.

Conclusion

Tech refresh, upgrades, transformational projects or legacy system modernisation are all opportunities to have a conversation about moving to the on-premises cloud experience of HPE GreenLake. For current HPE compute users, bringing HPE legacy server estates under HPE GreenLake control is one way to get started.

Whether you are a current HPE user or not, as your IT partner, we can help you identify the best modernisation approach for your business needs and implement the right HPE solutions for your business goals.