Key takeaways on replatforming

• Replatforming is a cloud migration strategy that optimises legacy systems for cloud environments with minimal changes, enhancing performance and scalability while retaining core functionality.
• This approach strikes a balance between rehosting, which involves no changes, and refactoring, which requires extensive modifications, making it a cost-efficient choice for organisations seeking modernisation.
• Key benefits of replatforming include improved system performance, reduced operational costs, and easier integration with modern tools, all of which help businesses meet growing demands and enhance agility.

What is cloud replatforming?

Replatforming is a strategic approach in cloud migration strategy that involves modifying a legacy system to optimise its performance in a cloud environment, all while preserving the core architecture.

This method strikes a balance between minor adjustments and meaningful improvements, allowing businesses to modernise their infrastructure without the extensive rewrites required by other replatform strategy.

Additionally, implementing effective cloud migration strategies can further enhance this replatforming process. Minimal – yet impactful – changes enable organisations to achieve significant improvements without the risks of more drastic overhauls.

For example, it can provide access to cloud-native features like automation services, lightweight APIs, and improved scalability, including various replatforming examples.

A key advantage of replatforming is leveraging cloud-native features and cloud native services without needing a complete rearchitecture. It suits businesses aiming to innovate and enhance their digital infrastructure without the time or resources for a full-scale transformation.

How is replatforming different from rehosting or refactoring?

Replatforming is often viewed as a middle ground between rehosting and refactoring.

Rehosting, commonly referred to as “lift and shift migration,” involves moving applications to a new platform with minimal to no changes. This approach is quick and straightforward but does not leverage the full cloud capabilities of the new environment.

On the other end of the spectrum, refactoring involves significant changes to the existing code to improve performance and scalability. This process can be resource-intensive and time-consuming but offers the most potential for optimisation.

Refactoring is ideal for applications that require extensive improvements to meet modern performance standards.

Replatforming, however, involves making minor modifications to the existing application to optimise it for the new platform.

This may include redesigning certain aspects of the application architecture or updating technology to ensure compatibility with the new environment. Unlike refactoring, replatforming requires fewer resources and offers a balance of cost savings and technical gains.

For example, a company might choose replatforming to move its application to a cloud platform, enabling the use of managed services and modern tools without a full rebuild.

This approach can reduce both capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX), making it a cost benefit analysis cost-efficient strategy for many organisations focused on resource utilisation.

How do you assess whether replatforming is the right strategy?

Assessing whether replatforming is the right strategy starts with a thorough technical and business feasibility study. This involves considering factors like cost, complexity, performance goals, time constraints, and the potential long-term value of partial modernisation.

Replatforming suits functionally solid and business-critical applications limited by their current platform’s scalability or maintainability.

This strategy offers a low-risk, high-impact path to modernisation, balancing minimal code changes with meaningful technical gains. It’s ideal when a full rebuild is too costly or time-consuming, and a simple lift-and-shift won’t provide the necessary improvements.

Evaluate your existing infrastructure. If it’s outdated, rigid, or costly to maintain, moving to a cloud infrastructure or container-based environment through replatforming can offer a more flexible and cost-efficient foundation.

If replatforming serves as a stepping stone to full modernisation, enabling gradual transformation while delivering immediate value, it’s often a strategic choice.

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When should a company consider replatforming?

Companies should consider replatforming when their applications struggle with growing workloads, user traffic, or data volume. This strategy can improve speed, responsiveness, and scalability, ensuring the system meets increasing demands efficiently.

Additionally, if maintaining legacy environments is becoming prohibitively expensive and resource-intensive, replatforming to cloud or modern platforms can significantly reduce operational costs.

Replatforming benefits businesses with slow development and deployment cycles. Enabling continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, automation, and more agile delivery lets companies release features faster and with fewer errors.

If your business needs auto-scaling, managed services, or cloud-native integrations but your current platform doesn’t support them, replatforming makes these features accessible without a full rebuild.

Moreover, if your application still delivers business value but relies on obsolete tech stacks or unsupported newer platforms, replatforming extends its lifecycle and prepares it for future modernisation on an existing platform.

Read more about cloud migration:

• How much does cloud migration cost and how to estimate it?
• Enterprise cloud computing: strategy and benefits

What are the key benefits of replatforming?

Leveraging optimised cloud services from a cloud provider enables applications to achieve enhanced system performance and responsiveness.

This performance boost is crucial for businesses aiming to handle increased workloads and provide a better user experience, highlighting the cloud efficiencies, benefits, and capabilities for modern enterprises.

Another significant benefit is cost efficiency. Replatforming can lead to substantial cost reductions by utilising managed services and optimised storage solutions. This not only lowers long-term maintenance costs but also improves return on investment (ROI).

Additionally, adopting serverless architectures through replatforming can increase agility and reduce maintenance overhead.

Replatforming also facilitates easier integration with modern APIs and services, enhancing overall functionality and customer satisfaction.

This allows businesses to leverage new platform features like managed cloud service, monitoring, and auto-scaling on new platforms, significantly optimising workflows and improving user experience, all while ensuring enhanced scalability.

What types of applications are best suited for replatforming?

Certain types of applications are particularly well-suited for replatforming.

Legacy applications that reliably deliver value but need better performance, scalability, or integration with modern tools are prime candidates. These applications often require only minor functional changes, making replatforming a practical and efficient strategy.

Large, legacy systems that are difficult to scale or maintain can benefit from replatforming as a first step toward modernisation. This approach can pave the way for more advanced updates, such as adopting microservices architecture in the future.

Additionally, software hosted on aging, on premises systems or costly licensed environments can gain significantly by moving to a cloud or containerised platform.

Applications that would benefit from auto-scaling, managed databases, or serverless computing but don’t require a full rewrite are also ideal for replatforming.

Furthermore, applications with slow, error-prone, or inflexible deployment processes can improve greatly by adopting CI/CD pipelines, API-first design, and more automated release cycles.

What are the risks involved in replatforming?

Replatforming, while beneficial, comes with its own set of risks.

One significant risk is technical debt. Resolving any technical debt beforehand ensures a smoother transition and long-term benefits. Integration issues can also arise, but these can be mitigated by thoroughly assessing the existing technology stack and planning for compatibility.

Maintaining data integrity during the cloud migration process is another critical concern for data security and compliance, including regulatory or compliance requirements.

Automating customer data transfer processes and conducting thorough testing ensure data remains accurate and secure. Regular performance monitoring using cloud-specific tools allows for real-time adjustments and proactive resource management.

Scope creep is a common risk in any project, including replatforming. Defining clear project goals from the outset helps prevent scope creep, which can lead to budget overruns and delays. Regularly evaluating resource usage can also help identify opportunities for savings and optimisation.

At Future Processing, we help businesses like yours unlock better performance, scalability, and cloud-readiness through tailored Modernise & Scale strategies.

Get in touch with our experts to discuss how we can support your replatforming journey.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s typically included in a replatforming project?

Replatforming may include code adjustments, cloud infrastructure changes, containerisation, environment configuration, database migration, and deployment automation.

How long does a replatforming project take?

Timelines vary by application complexity, but a typical replatforming effort may take from a few weeks to several months, depending on the scope and readiness of the target environment.

Can replatforming be a stepping stone to full modernisation?

Yes – replatforming is often a pragmatic first step toward more extensive modernisation strategies like refactoring or rearchitecting, allowing teams to unlock early value and reduce risk.

How does replatforming impact users and business operations?

When executed properly, replatforming is minimally disruptive, but teams must manage change carefully to ensure performance, availability, and data consistency during and after the transition.

What cloud platforms support replatforming?

All major cloud providers – AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – offer services and tools that support replatforming, such as PaaS options, container services, and cloud migration tools.