Refactoring and Migration of Legacy Applications

Few challenges in IT have as many potential pitfalls and problems as updating or migrating legacy (or "stable-stated") applications that were written years ago.

We have been working with large computer systems since the early 1990s (when IBM mainframes still ruled the earth) and enjoyed the evolution of IT technology to Client/Server and - eventually - 4GL languages and dynamic, robust, easily extendable multi-tier applications on modern platforms such as .NET and J2EE.

Our deep knowledge of enterprise systems and software development environments from the past and present allows us to carefully disect even poorly documented legacy systems and assess possibilities for adjusting them to updated business processes or for moving them to a new platform and/or language altogether.

Writing the code tends to be the smallest part of such projects - the most time-consuming aspects are getting a complete picture of the system's functionalities, and writing and executing a comprehensive set of test cases to ensure problem-free deployment in the production environment.

We use innovative steps, such as running poorly documented code through our MS Word mark-up macro which can be adjusted to almost any language, or automatically comparing the most recent changes to the legacy systems (if different sets of source code are available) to find out which changes were done and how, even long after the original programmer left.

Our experience in the analysis and conversion of databases also tends to play a major part in any project involving legacy applications, as well as our documentation and validation practices.

No matter if your enterprise system is written in COBOL, PL/1, REXX, or an older version of a current language such as Visual Basic, ASP, or Coldfusion, contact us today for a free consultation.