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Application Modernization Services

With 34 years in software development and hands-on experience in 30+ industries, ScienceSoft offers end-to-end app modernization services to help clients upgrade, revitalize, and future-proof their software.

Application Modernization Services - ScienceSoft

Boris Shiklo

ScienceSoft's Chief Technology Officer

Application modernization services cover app evolution, redesign, reengineering, migration to the cloud, and other activities to reduce maintenance costs and improve features, performance, security, and scalability. Adherent to mature software modernization and risk management practices, ScienceSoft transforms apps with minimal disruption to business processes.

Why Partner Up with ScienceSoft for Legacy Software Modernization

  • 34 years in software development, 11 years in cloud migration.
  • 550+ developers, 50% are seniors/leads with 9-20 years of experience.
  • Expert proficiency in modernization of legacy applications and different migration approaches (rehosting, replatforming, re-architecting, refactoring, and more).
  • Experience in 30+ industries, including healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing, retail, logistics, oil & gas, and telecoms.
  • Partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, and other global tech leaders.
  • Well-established Agile and DevOps cultures, transparent KPIs, mature risk management practices.
  • Hands-on knowledge of HIPAA, HITECH, PCI DSS/SSF, GDPR, and other field- and region-specific regulations to ensure full software compliance.
  • Quality-first approach based on a mature ISO 9001-certified quality management system.

  • ISO 27001-certified security management based on comprehensive policies and processes, advanced security technology, and skilled professionals.
  • For the second straight year, ScienceSoft USA Corporation is listed among The Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies by the Financial Times.

Application Modernization Benefits

The market of application modernization services is expected to grow from $15.2 billion in 2022 to $32.8 billion by 2027. The growth is driven by attractive benefits companies get.

Better user experience

due to upgraded UX/UI design, improved app performance, and new highly requested features.

State-of-the art security

due to introducing secure software design and coding best practices, expert security testing, and built-in regulatory compliance.

Lower maintenance costs

due to the reduced IT support team workload and wide cloud optimization opportunities.

Streamlined business processes and improved employee productivity

due to workflow automation and implementation of advanced techs.

Increased app availability & scalability

due to optimized software design and infinite cloud resources (for cloud migration).

Ease of further app evolution

due to the clear software documentation, flexible architecture (e.g., SOA/microservices-based), and reusable code.

For cloud application migrations

  • Reduced costs of IT infrastructure due to the pay-as-you-go pricing model.
  • Quick scalability of cloud resources with no upfront cost (pay-as-you-go pricing).
  • 99.90 – 99.99% migrated app uptime and zero risk failure.
  • Faster application updates (~33% increased speed of software development and deployment).
  • For rehosting: 15-20% savings over on-premises application hosting.
  • For replatforming: up to 450% ROI, 35%-80% savings over on-premises application hosting.
  • For refactoring: up to 470% ROI, 50% faster deployments.

ScienceSoft’s CTO with 20+ years of experience

When businesses come to us for legacy software modernization services, we often recommend them to consider cloud migration as a part of the project. At this point, moving to the cloud is virtually always the most rational thing to do: you reduce the operational costs by up to 60%, achieve 99.9% app availability, and gain access to the cloud-dependent techs such as AI automation and data science. To make cloud migration fast and secure, ScienceSoft’s team divides legacy software into manageable parts and ensures gradual transition from one stable state to the next one. We also offer our clients to start off with a pilot migration: it helps assess the viability of the chosen migration approach and make the required tweaks cost-efficiently and risk-free.

Our Application Modernization Competencies

Application modernization consulting

We thoroughly investigate your legacy application code and infrastructure, mine requirements, and provide detailed guidance on the improvements that can help you to derive max value from previous investments.

Legacy app migration to cloud

Depending on the application and business needs, ScienceSoft offers one of the three ways to the cloud – application re-hosting, application re-platforming or a cloud-native implementation.

Check the details about each migration scenario

Application reengineering

With a wide pool of legacy application modernization skills, we can help you restore and slightly modify code and design of your long-running enterprise applications.

Application reengineering can grant:

  • Web and mobile enablement.
  • Improved look&feel.
  • Simplified and less costly maintenance and updates.
  • DevOps, CI/CD enablement.
  • Increased performance and response time.

Application re-architecting

We change an application’s architecture to make it more scalable, flexible, integration-friendly, and secure. The apps with modern modular architectures are easier to maintain and evolve, and they can benefit from distributed computing, cloud elasticity and resilience. Nowadays, our clients tend to get maximum value from service-oriented architecture (SOA), microservices, and serverless implementations.

Application recoding (automated and customized)

We revive your applications created on the basis of legacy languages and platforms (such as PowerBuilder, Delphi, VB, C++, COBOL) or aging technologies (outdated Java and .NET versions) with the use of modern programming languages, frameworks and databases.

Application containerization

Across all modernization options, we can pack your apps or their parts into packages isolated from each other at the OS level.

Containerization means:

  • Fewer resources required to run.
  • Easier scalability.
  • Simplified movement across different environments.
  • CI/CD practices enablement.

Data modernization

We revamp an approach to data management and upgrade data systems to set up fast, scalable and secure data analytics within your company. We implement self-service BI and apply various data visualization techniques to let you generate on-demand reports and grab enlightening data insights.

Digital transformation

ScienceSoft helps companies revamp business processes for better efficiency, agility, and resilience and achieve higher ROI by evolving, integrating the existing corporate apps or reusing their parts in new solutions.

Mobile and cross-platform compatibility

Our designers and developers help businesses ensure their software offers seamless experiences across platforms and devices. We thoroughly review your solution to identify any potential compatibility issues (like functionality and display problems, security conflicts) and provide recommendations for remediation.

Regulatory compliance

Our compliance consultants, cybersecurity engineers, and software developers help ensure that your apps comply with applicable laws and regulations (HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, ZATCA, SAMA, and others). They assess your software and its design, development, testing, and deployment processes, identify gaps in your compliance program and develop a customized plan to address them.

Security enhancement

An ISO 27001-certified service provider, ScienceSoft offers the skills and knowledge of top experts to assess and improve the security of web, mobile, and desktop applications and find ways to enhance data protection.

Accessibility compliance

We help businesses ensure their software is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Our team has extensive experience with ADA, Section 508, WCAG, and other standards. We assess your software and help remediate any accessibility issues (e.g., lacking keyboard accessibility, insufficient color contrast, forms that are not properly labeled or do not have clear instructions, no alternative text and transcripts for images, video, and audio).

Ready to talk specifics?

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Selected App Modernization Projects

Our Happy Customers

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Types of Apps We Modernize

Software type

  • Web, mobile, and desktop app modernization
  • Enterprise application modernization (ERP, CRM, BPA, HCM, SCM, PPM, BI, data warehouses) & SaaS modernization.
  • IoT, big data applications, blockchain, AI/ML modernization

Platforms

  • Dynamics 365
  • Salesforce
  • Magento
  • SharePoint
  • ServiceNow and other platforms

Installed on

  • Cloud-based, on-premise, and hybrid servers.
  • Computers, laptops, mobile devices, and wearables.

Components We Modernize

App infrastructure

App architectures and tech stack

App integrations

App UI/UX

Don’t Let Your Legacy Keep You in the Past

Make it a driver of your future success with ScienceSoft. Schedule a meeting with our experts to discuss your unique needs in detail and design a tailored modernization strategy that will not disrupt your vital business operations.

Our 4-Step Application Modernization Strategy

Each legacy app will have a unique modernization strategy. However, we follow a structured process to save time on organizational matters.

Application Modernization Strategy - ScienceSoft

Application migration to cloud scenarios

  • Application re-hosting. We move the application from the on-premises or the old cloud infrastructure to the new cloud (AWS or Azure). This is a fast and simple migration option to enable DevOps and ubiquitous access and optimize the usage of hardware resources that also streamlines more advanced modernization in the future. However, re-hosting offers just limited cloud-driven benefits in terms of app resilience, performance and scalability.
  • Application re-platforming. We complement moving the application to the cloud with the introduction of small modifications and upgrades in code that will bring more advanced cloud capabilities (improved performance, scaling, fault-tolerance, etc.) to the application.
  • Cloud-native implementation. We transform the app architecture (e.g., split it into web services/microservices) to make it withstand dynamic load and performance requirements, allow partial updates, technology mix, and shared platform usage.

Application Modernization Trends We Willingly Use

Low-code development

We use the advantage of fast and cost-effective development to build extra apps that will complement your core application or substitute its parts.

Hybrid clouds

We mix private and public clouds to meet strict security requirements for certain services or storages within an app, and still keep the overall cost reasonable.

Edge computing

We can enable real-time response of apps supporting Internet-connected devices by moving data processing closer to where data originates.

PWA

We offer to turn a legacy customer-facing app into a PWA if you want to achieve great user experience on any screens without investing into mobile apps.

The Financial Times Includes ScienceSoft USA Corporation in the List of the Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies 2023

For the second year in a row, ScienceSoft USA Corporation ranks among 500 American companies with the highest revenue growth. This achievement is the result of our unfailing commitment to provide high-quality IT services and create best-value solutions that meet and even exceed our clients’ expectations.

Application Modernization: Timelines and Costs

  • 2+ months

    to perform UI updates, simple code conversions and cloud migrations

  • 6+ months

    to replatform/refactor an application of medium size and complexity

  • 2+ years

    for re-engineering and refactoring of large enterprise-wide systems

The total cost of application modernization can range from $10,000­–$15,000 for a UI upgrade or rehosting of a small app to $50,000–$250,000 for a substantial modernization of a medium/large app. If extensive re-engineering, deep recoding, or implementation of advanced techs (e.g., big data, AI/ML) is required, the cost may reach $500,000+ for a large application.

Among the key cost factors that influence the price of legacy modernization services are:

  • The complexity of applications and their dependencies.
  • The volume of data to transfer.
  • The life span of the application and its cloud migration readiness; the scope of infrastructure, code and configuration changes required.
  • The extent of modernization automation and the cost of the relevant software licenses (e.g., code conversion tools).
  • The required testing efforts.

Need Expert Help to Estimate Your App Modernization Costs?

ScienceSoft’s software architects and business analysts are ready to calculate the cost of legacy app modernization services for your specific case.

Our Technological Expertise

Legacy application modernization services help businesses regain the effectiveness of apps by upgrading their design, functionality, architecture, and technology stack.

With 750+ experienced IT professionals on board, ScienceSoft works with a variety of programming tools and application modernization solutions.

Advanced Technologies We Are Ready to Implement

When modernizing legacy applications, we don't only improve the core of the app but can also build up new capabilities and functions.

Difference between App Modernization and Digital Transformation

Digital transformation

Application modernization

Goal

To improve the speed, resilience, performance and cost of business processes by adopting new digital capabilities.

To revamp an existing app in a way to improve its vital characteristics (extensibility, security, performance, usability) and optimize maintenance cost.

Scope
  • Modernization of legacy apps.
  • New software development.
  • Cloud enablement.
  • Data-driven environment modeling.
  • Transformation of corporate culture.
  • App migration to a new technology stack.
  • Code refactoring.
  • App re-architecting.
  • App re-platforming.
  • App migration to the cloud.
Duration
  • Commonly 2+ years.
  • 2-6 months for medium app modernization.
  • 1-2 years for large enterprise-wide app modernization.
Cost
  • $400,000–$2,000,000 for companies with up to 5,000 employees.
  • $600,000–$5,000,000 for companies with 5,000+ employees.
  • $50,000–$250,000 for medium/large app modernization.
  • Up to $500,000 for extensive re-engineering or deep re-coding of a large app.

Answering Frequent Questions about Application Modernization

What is the biggest factor in deciding to start the modernization process for an application?

Cost is an overriding factor prompting app modernization. The truth is companies can live with legacy apps but the maintenance and evolution cost will be high. As legacy apps are rigid, a support team will put in significant time and effort to deliver new features, and some changes will be not even possible. The backlog will be mounting just as your irritation and feeling of irrational spending. App modernization is the investment that pays back after the first year of reduced maintenance costs.

Is it possible to modernize a legacy app with no detailed documentation (functional specifications)?

Sure. In this case, ScienceSoft will mine the business rules from the existing application code and documentation, investigate code dependencies and component integrations. Plus, we are ready to cooperate with your in-house IT team, third-party vendors, and other parties knowledgeable of the application work to speed up the process.

How can I be sure that the modernized app will bring the expected results instead of only wasting the company’s time and resources?

At ScienceSoft, we rely on robust risk management practices and start with an in-depth assessment of your legacy system, focusing on technical, business, and economic considerations. Before starting any project, we prepare a comprehensive feasibility study report with estimated gains and risk analysis to help you make a well-informed decision on the legacy app’s future. Plus, to make app modernization as transparent and manageable as possible, our software engineers split legacy apps into several independent modules so that they can introduce the required changes quickly and incrementally.

Can we modernize legacy applications without operational downtime?

At ScienceSoft, we conduct thorough testing and continuous monitoring of the modernized app modules to make sure they run as expected and don’t disrupt your business processes.

Is it possible to avoid long freeze-up of the apps during modernization?

Yes. For this, we split applications into several independent loosely coupled parts (e.g., microservices) to introduce the required changes fast and incrementally.