Technological Migration: Is It Really Necessary?
This article has been written in collaboration with Gabriel García, Technical Leader at Flux IT. Enjoy the read!
In a dynamic and competitive world, flexibility and tech innovation are crucial for organizations. The ability to adapt and evolve is essential to maintain operational efficiency and competitiveness.
Over the years, many legacy tools have been the key to the development of these organizations, but nowadays, more modern and flexible technologies are sought out. This transition is not just a technical upgrade but a strategic shift towards more robust and scalable architectures that can integrate better with emerging technologies and respond quickly to market demands.
On this occasion, I want to share the migration experience of an insurance company’s core system, which currently uses legacy and proprietary technologies like Oracle Forms. But first, let me explain why a tech migration can be a truly strategic move.
Benefits of Tech Migration
Migrating from Oracle Forms or any other legacy technology to modern technologies offers a series of significant benefits that can improve both the system’s operational effectiveness and user experience. Such benefits include:
- Enhanced user experience: It makes it possible to develop more intuitive, modern, and responsive interfaces, thus significantly enhancing user interaction and satisfaction.
- Greater compatibility and accessibility: Generally, new technologies offer greater compatibility with a wide range of devices and browsers, allowing access from anywhere at any given moment, thus facilitating remote and mobile work.
- Scalability and performance: New technologies are designed to handle a higher volume of data and users, thus improving performance and the ability to scale depending on business needs.
- Improved maintenance and support: Nowadays, technologies come with more robust and up-to-date support, making maintenance, troubleshooting, and the incorporation of new features easier.
- Interoperability: It makes integrations with other systems and services easier and more effective, thus enhancing data flow and interoperability between them.
- Long-term cost reduction: Although the initial migration process may require an investment, it usually reduces operational and licensing costs in the long run, as well as costs associated with maintaining legacy technologies.
- Innovation and competitiveness: Adopting modern technologies allows organizations to innovate more quickly, stay competitive in a constantly evolving market, and respond agilely to new opportunities and challenges.
- Automation and Efficiency: New technologies enable process and repetitive task automation, thus increasing operational efficiency and freeing up resources for more strategic tasks.
Time to Migrate: A Concrete Case
As part of the digital upgrade process, the insurance company in this project is currently undergoing a migration process from Oracle Forms to a new architecture of web components developed in Angular with a service layer in Spring Boot (Java 17+).
The migration process consists of several stages, which range from an initial survey and technical analysis of the forms to the implementation and deployment of the migrated solution in each of its layers.
- Technical Analysis and Survey
This stage involves analyzing and breaking down forms to help specify user stories and the technical backlog. Key points of this analysis include:
- PL/SQL Code
- Packages
- Triggers, stored procedures, and functions
- Layout of views and results
2. Prototype Design
High-fidelity prototypes are designed, these are crucial for the migration and development process, and they provide a precise and detailed representation of the forms, while taking into account UX guidelines for what is expected on each screen.
3. Functional Specification
User stories with all the necessary details are created based on the analysis of user-provided forms and/or videos that describe the form’s functionality. To do so, we focus on the needs and experiences of end users by describing their interaction with the forms.
4. Development
The development of these screens follows the prototypes and user stories. Then, we develop the front end in Angular while adhering to the experience and interface guidelines represented in the prototypes. Furthermore, the back end exposes necessary services containing the existing business logic from the forms. Additionally, interactions with various database artifacts are developed.
5. Deployment
Each software artifact generated is deployed on the corresponding servers. In our case, the entire deployment process is automated with CI/CD processes.
6. Testing
In migration, testing the artifacts is crucial to ensure the quality and correct functioning of the migrated system. This stage involves rigorous testing to identify and correct errors, verify the correct implementation of requirements, and ensure that all functionalities operate as expected.
Conclusion
Migrating legacy systems to modern technologies represents a significant change in the technological infrastructure of organizations. This process not only improves operational efficiency and user experience but also positions companies to respond more agilely to market demands and technological innovations.
The migration experience shared in this article demonstrates how a meticulous and well-structured approach, from technical analysis and prototype design to deployment and testing, can ensure a successful transition. The benefits obtained, such as improved user experience, greater compatibility and accessibility, and long-term cost reduction, attest to the strategic value of migration.
Adopting modern technologies enables efficient integration with other systems and services and provides the scalability and performance needed to support a higher volume of data and users. Additionally, the robust and up-to-date support offered by these technologies facilitates maintenance and the incorporation of new features, thus promoting innovation and competitiveness within the organization.
In summary, migrating to modern technological architectures is a crucial step for any organization seeking to remain competitive in an ever-evolving environment. This process, with the challenges it presents, offers a clear path to operational efficiency and greater user satisfaction.
