Transform your legacy applications for modern work – Make your legacy databases accessible on the cloud

As referenced in the introductory blog, legacy applications are considered critical to some businesses, what these businesses don’t realise is that they are inherently reliant on applications that overtime will either get superseded or will simply never get updated and remain static. Something else to consider about your legacy applications is if there is still vendor support, if there isn’t this could put your business in breach of GDPR.

Worse still you could be exploited if not protected, resulting in financial repercussions, system damage, and potentially lengthy expensive change of IT hardware. Legacy applications could be holding back your network due to the database only running on that particular network. Migrating your legacy databases to the cloud is easy and your employees will notice no difference to the operation of the system, it will simply be protected and secure and allow for a less dramatic transition to the latest version of the legacy database, this is an eventuality, if you make the decision not to then your hand will be forced by struggling I.T or an unproductive app. Legacy databases are better off on the cloud, one example of cloud infrastructure is Azure, Azure hosts non-persistent terminal server sessions in the cloud and you can use them with your legacy apps. In simpler terminology, Azure hosts apps in the cloud and takes care of the hardware and scaling to meet your demands, it's as simple as uploading the apps you want to share and then getting your employees to use those apps.

Stepping into the 21^st century isn’t as time-consuming or as costly as you might think. People often end up calculating Cloud cost with the same patterns as they were using in their data centres, missing out on the world of opportunities that public cloud infrastructure can offer because they are simply doing the maths incorrectly. Accenture (a professional services firm) declared that the shift to the cloud helped them realise $14.5 million in benefits in 3 years!¹

In today's environment, we need flexibility and agility to manage what has become a mobile and dynamic workforce due to Covid 19. The cloud offers this in abundance.

The Cloud has many benefits over the old fashioned stand-alone legacy apps, reduced infrastructure cost, improved sociability, connectivity, elasticity and reliability to name just a few.

A feature that is attractive to businesses is the ability to use old generation software in the cloud. Taking your legacy apps to the cloud and using them as they are is possible, you can migrate your dated version of the app that you prefer your system to run on for whatever reason that may be, and can use it as is with the opportunity to upgrade the software later.

Another great feature of the Cloud is ‘Cloud hosting’.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud Hosting is different from traditional ‘hosting’, traditional hosting is deployed on a single server. Cloud Hosting makes applications and websites accessible using cloud resources.

Remote working

The Cloud is what makes Remote working possible, it enables your employees to work from anywhere, anytime with access via a virtual environment to the same information and tools that they have when in the office.

Security

In today's world, security is very important with all of our information no longer just being in our wallet, instead, it's online and not in our control all the time anymore. Cloud computing can make your security levels increase as a business. There are many security measures to put in place such as; automatic encryption of files when someone without authorisation attempts to access them, passwords, two-factor authentification, etc.

Optimised spending

Noone that runs their own business wants to spend money unnecessarily. As more companies move away from their on-site storage in favour of modern Cloud storage there are things you can do to save money during the transition to the cloud. Firstly, you should check for unused resources that you no longer have use for, check that you have rightsized your services with the ability to scale up or down as and when you need to.

Turning your legacy apps into Web-based apps through the Cloud will revolutionise the way you run your business. With the correct infrastructure, you can save money and time, and boost your productivity in the office and remotely.

Are you challenged by legacy database applications? We're here to help!

At Tristar, we provide a cost-effective one-stop-shop with all the required expertise and consultancy, along with independent hosting solution options in our UK data centres, to permit you to make an informed decision about your legacy application hosting needs. With our history of providing expert IT support since 1999, we can help you! Contact us today to book a free discovery call to learn about options to best address your business technology challenges and needs.