Businesses are under constant pressure to adapt and innovate to stay ahead. However, many organisations are held back by their legacy systems, which struggle to keep pace with modern demands. Fortunately, there’s a solution: OutSystems. As an OutSystems partner, 9X5 is committed to helping businesses transform their existing IT infrastructure into modern, efficient technology. In this article, we’ll explore three powerful strategies for modernising legacy systems using OutSystems’ high-performance low-code platform.
The Challenge of Legacy Systems
Legacy systems, including outdated technologies like COBOL, continue to play a vital role in many organisations, performing core functions reliably but lacking the flexibility and agility required to meet today’s business needs. The traditional approach of ripping and replacing these systems is costly, time-consuming, and fraught with risk. Moreover, IT and business teams often struggle to align their priorities, leading to frustration and inefficiency.
Three Strategies for Modernisation
OutSystems offers three innovative strategies for modernising legacy systems:
1. Extend
Think of your enterprise IT systems as a house. Extending is akin to adding a new room or window to accommodate changing needs. With OutSystems, you can quickly add new capabilities and customer journeys without altering the core system architecture. Leveraging prebuilt connectors to common enterprise systems like SAP and Salesforce, you can seamlessly integrate data and build custom views tailored to your business requirements. This approach enables rapid innovation without incurring technical debt.
2. Refactor
Refactoring involves re-envisioning legacy systems one component at a time, gradually transforming the entire architecture into a modern, decoupled environment. Like rearranging the rooms of a house, refactoring allows organisations to address urgent needs while minimising disruption. With OutSystems, enterprises can refactor specific functions, integrating them with the rest of the ecosystem to facilitate interoperability and scalability. By eliminating technical debt and unexpected dependencies, this approach sets the stage for long-term success.
3. Re-build
When legacy systems reach the end of their life or no longer meet business requirements, rebuilding becomes necessary. OutSystems empowers organisations to rebuild from the ground up, creating purpose-built, cloud-native solutions tailored to their exact needs. By tapping into original data sources and leveraging high-performance low-code development, companies can accelerate the transition to a modern architecture while minimising downtime and disruption. This approach ensures seamless integration with existing systems, enabling a smooth transition to the new platform.
Conclusion
Modernising legacy systems is essential for businesses looking to thrive in today’s digital economy. With OutSystems, organisations can choose from three powerful strategies—extend, refactor, or rebuild—to transform their IT infrastructure at their own pace. Whether augmenting existing systems, re-envisioning legacy components, or building from scratch, OutSystems provides the tools and expertise needed to drive innovation and accelerate growth. Partner with 9X5 and embark on your digital transformation journey today.
Ready to modernise your legacy systems with OutSystems? Contact us today to learn more about how companies around the world have successfully transformed their IT infrastructure using our high-performance low-code platform. Unlock the power of innovation and drive accelerated growth with OutSystems and 9X5.