Legacy modernization without switching the business off.
The old system still works. That's the problem. Everyone is scared to touch it, nobody wants to maintain it, and every new feature takes a month. We modernize it piece by piece, with the old and new running side by side until each part is proven.
The problem you're living with.
You know the system. It was built fifteen years ago by someone who left, it runs on a server in a cupboard, and it's the reason every roadmap slips.
- Small changes take weeks because nobody fully understands the code.
- Hosting costs keep rising, and the hardware or runtime is going out of support.
- You can't hire developers who want to work on the old stack.
- A full rewrite was quoted once. It was huge, risky, and nobody could promise it would work.
Legacy systems cost you twice: once in maintenance and outages, and again in every product idea you can't ship because the platform won't let you.
What we build.
Move ageing systems to modern architecture in stages, while the business keeps running.
Code and architecture assessment
What's there, what it depends on, what's risky, and what can be kept. Written for decision makers, not just engineers.
Strangler-fig migration
New services grow around the old system and take over one function at a time, until the old core can be switched off safely.
Cloud migration
Move to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud with infrastructure as code, so environments are repeatable and documented.
API layers
Put a clean, documented API in front of the old system so new apps can use it before it's rebuilt.
Data migration
Scripted, tested and reversible moves of your data, with reconciliation reports so you can see nothing was lost.
Re-platforming and refactoring
Upgrade runtimes and frameworks, split out the parts that change most, and add the tests the old code never had.
How it works, step by step.
No big bang. Small, measured steps with a working demo every week.
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Assess
We read the code, the infrastructure and the incident history, and talk to the people who keep it alive.
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Plan the slices
Break the system into pieces that can move independently, ordered by risk and value. Each slice has a rollback plan.
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Build the safety net
Monitoring, automated tests and a way to route traffic between old and new before we move anything.
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Migrate slice by slice
Each piece moves, runs in parallel, gets compared with the old behaviour, and only then takes real traffic.
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Retire the old parts
When nothing depends on a piece of the legacy system any more, we switch it off and document what replaced it.
What changes for your team.
What we aim for, measured against how things run today. We don't promise numbers before we've seen your baseline.
Changes ship in days, not months
Modern code with tests means developers can change it without fear.
Predictable hosting costs
Right-sized cloud infrastructure you can see, tag and control.
Hiring gets easier
A stack developers actually want to work on.
No big-bang risk
At no point does the whole business depend on one cut-over weekend.
What we'd tell a friend about legacy modernization & cloud migration
Be suspicious of anyone who wants to rewrite everything from scratch. Rewrites take longer than planned and usually drop features nobody remembered the old system had. Modernize in slices, and keep the lights on the whole time.
What we won't do
- Propose a big-bang rewrite with a single go-live date.
- Migrate data without a tested rollback and a reconciliation report.
- Move you to a cloud setup only we know how to operate.
Legacy Modernization: your questions.
Can you modernize our legacy system without downtime?
That's how we plan it. Old and new run side by side, traffic moves gradually, and each step can be rolled back. Some changes need a short maintenance window, and we'll tell you which ones well in advance.
Should we rewrite or refactor?
It depends on the code, not on fashion. Often the answer is both: keep and wrap the parts that work, rebuild the parts that change most or break most. The assessment tells us which is which.
Which cloud should we move to?
The one that fits your team, compliance needs and existing contracts. We work with AWS, Azure and Google Cloud and don't take commissions from any of them.
What if the original developers are gone and there's no documentation?
That's the normal case. We reverse-engineer behaviour from the code, the database and the people who use the system, and we write the documentation as we go.
How long does a migration take?
It depends on the size of the system. What we can promise is that you'll see progress every week and the business won't depend on a single risky cut-over date.
Want this for your team? Let's scope it together.
Tell us how the work runs today. We'll come back within one business day with an honest first take and a suggested first step.
- Weekly demos
- No lock-in
- You own the code
- 1 business day