Adapt, don't change! How to empower legacy systems in the cloud era

Is your legacy technology holding back your digital transformation plans? Are vital yet ageing infrastructures such as mainframes creating headaches for your vision of a cloud future?

Chances are, you are wondering how to replace or circumvent the older systems.

But you can have both worlds: leverage your mainframes and other legacy by integrating them with the cloud, without disrupting their operations or creating extra burdens for your IT teams. This becomes possible when mWtech is your implementation partner.

The problem with legacy

We are in the middle of a massive technology transition, shifting to cloud-based systems that celebrate modularity and agility. These changes are at odds with the traditional systems that have supported our organisations for many years, even decades.

Key among them are mainframes: large monolithic infrastructures that work in specific ways and do essential jobs. You cannot wave a wand and wish such systems away. They are crucial to operations and expensive to replicate or replace. At the very least, you need an eloquent way to phase them out. Rip and replace only leads to an expensive disaster.

Legacy is a significant barrier to digital transformation plans. In 2017, the UK's Cloud Industry Forum surveyed hundreds of companies, and found that 89% of IT employees believe that legacy technology stops them from successfully realising their transformation. If you are the custodian of elaborate legacy business systems, you likely agree.

But this needn't be the case. You can combine legacy and cloud infrastructure. At mWtech, we specialise in these types of transitions – connecting your legacy and cloud environments, providing safe access for third parties to legacy systems, and helping you transition into an API-first environment without burdening your teams or organisation.

Don't change – adapt!

mWtech accomplishes this balance by extending dedicated integration nodes into legacy environments, rather than changing the existing infrastructure and applications code. Using modern integration hubs that can run on-premises or in the cloud, there is no need to add new software to legacy infrastructure.

Third parties can leverage the hubs and add capabilities to existing systems without major disruptions, significantly reducing the risk of operational issues. As such, adding external integration components doesn't change the existing infrastructure. It only redirects traffic and thus affects transactions.

mWtech provides legacy modernisation solutions to numerous government, financial and utility customers. These cover a wide range of services such as finance management, fleet management, logistics operations and welfare onboarding processes. We establish modern web interface and API capabilities that connect with existing systems, combining original data views with additional API-powered data gadgets.

Our integration is streamlined via API, messaging, enterprise adapters and middleware bridge products. We select and combine the best different vendor solutions, such as webMethods from Software AG, Flowgear and WebSphere from IBM. We additionally leverage open source integration products to integrate enterprise business platforms, including SAP, Oracle and Natural/Cobol applications on z/OS and Unix.

Take it to the cloud

As your modernisation progresses, you can start using more advanced integration and transition features. mWtech specialises in connecting legacy applications to an enterprise service bus with minimal impact – even zero footprint – on the hosting platform. API gateways manage the incoming and outgoing API traffic, governing services execution through policies.

Such enhancements help support cloud migration projects through high-availability integration and API management infrastructure, located on-premises and in the cloud. Take advantage of the best cloud capabilities for re-integration projects: mWtech supports several types of cloud such as AWS, Azure and proprietary clouds from integration vendors such as Software AG and IBM BlueMix. Our systems thoroughly monitor availability, security and costs so that you can make crucial decisions at the right time.

Achieve seamless modernisation with mWtech

Modernisation is the re-integration of enterprise components. But when organisations are stuck with the old, they can feel desperate and struggle to see a way to transform fast and create digital economies.

By replacing integration blocks one at a time, mWtech provides you with a clear path to the optimal integration that supports API and digital environments. We provide cloud infrastructure so our customers can realise digital transformation without going through lengthy and expensive infrastructure preparations. All we require is remote access to your on-premises systems and transformation roadmap. And we're comfortable using customers' in-house integration tools, runtimes and software from their preferred vendors.

At mWtech, we design, install and configure specific integration products or the complete integration platform, and collaborate with your technical teams on short- and long-term projects. Along with technical services, mWtech also provides onsite business and technical consulting to evaluate your business and development processes, and suggest the best integration strategies and tools for the job. We offer cost-free advisory services, including transformation requirement clarification and scoping, current integration infrastructure assessment, development assistance and licence procurement advice.

You don't need to replace everything to modernise your business, and you don't have to leave your legacy systems behind. With mWtech, you can enjoy a phased approach to integration, APIs and digital economies.

Please get in touch with mWtech to learn more. Learn more by contacting us or visiting https://middlewaretechnologies.co.za/ and browsing our service pages. We'll be delighted to share our insights with you.