Application Modernization

In today’s AI-first economy, legacy systems can't keep pace with the demands of applications, such as real-time insights, intelligent automation, and adaptive user experiences. To remain competitive, businesses must adopt modern, composable architectures that are cloud-ready, API-first, and built for rapid innovation.

At Marlabs, we partner with forward-thinking organizations to modernize their application portfolio — unlocking the agility and resilience needed to lead in an AI-led era.

What Is Application Modernization?

It is the process of updating an organization’s existing digital ecosystem, including processes, systems, and tools, to the latest industry standards. Essentially, this entails the transformation of monolithic legacy applications into next-gen, cloud-native applications built on microservices architecture.  
Here are the key phases typically involved in an application modernization initiative:
Assessment and discovery:
Firstly, businesses conduct an in-depth analysis of their existing application landscape to evaluate technical debt, dependencies, and readiness for modernization.  
Strategy and planning:
Depending on the results, a well-defined roadmap is established that outlines the scope of modernization efforts and future-state architecture. This includes selecting the right approach (rehosting, refactoring, rebuilding, etc.) and creation of a phase-wise execution plan.
Redesign and integration:
In this stage, legacy monoliths (be it targeted components or entire systems) are transformed. This can include migration to cloud platforms, API-enablement, or containerization to ensure that applications are inter-operable, resilient, and AI-ready.
Testing and deployment:
Next, modernized applications are rigorously tested for performance, security, and compliance. Post-testing, they are deployed to the production environment and become accessible for live use.
Monitoring, maintenance and optimization:
After successful deployment, businesses establish observability, governance, and feedback loops. These empower teams to gauge performance in real-time, ensure compliance, and drive continuous iteration for application improvement.

How Does Our Application Modernization Work?

At Marlabs, our approach to application modernization is powered by our proprietary Marlabs Cloud Framework (MCP). Refined over years of successful transformation and leveraging cloud-native development best practices and technologies, MCP is designed to empower you with a resilient and agile application landscape.

What Makes Our Approach Different?

Our distinctive edge stems from a deep-rooted focus on holistic, cloud-native transformations that ensure your modernized applications are faster, smarter, more secure, and inherently more adaptable.

Strategic cultural alignment

Establish a cloud-native mindset and DevOps practices to drive continuous learning and innovation.

Proactive Observability

Embed system-wide monitoring and health analytics for real-time performance and event insights.

Intelligent data persistence

Re-architect your application portfolio for resilience, modularity, automation, and API-first integration.

Cloud middleware and serverless agility

Enable communication and data management across applications to reduce operational overhead; leverage a pay-per-use model that optimizes your cloud spend.

Future-ready design principles

Optimize your data storage needs for efficiency and performance by implementing a fit-based database technology for each specific microservice.

What Business Problems Can Application Modernization Solve?

Many organizations find themselves anchored by legacy applications – systems that, while once crucial, now hinder their ability to innovate and compete effectively. Meanwhile, continuous market shifts led by rapid technological advancements and dynamic customer expectations are swiftly reshaping business goals. To navigate this new reality, organizations must evolve their tech stacks to be able to meet changing demands and drive growth.  

Application modernization enables this transformation, empowering organizations to enhance the lifespan and effectiveness of their IT infrastructure for greater business agility, flexibility, and scalability.

Take a look at the key benefits that businesses gain through application modernization:
Reduced operational costs:
The upkeep of aging infrastructure and complex legacy codebases can be expensive. Modernization reduces business overhead through the transition to scalable and efficient cloud-native platforms.
Enhanced innovation velocity:
By adopting modular architectures built on cloud-native platforms, teams can rapidly develop, test, and deploy new features. This enhanced agility, coupled with easier integration of modern technologies, allows businesses to accelerate their time to market and seize revenue opportunities faster.
Reduced technical debt:
Through modernization, businesses can replace outdated, rigid systems with modular, scalable architectures. This helps in eliminating compatibility issues, the need for vulnerability patches, and functionality limitations. Ultimately, businesses end up reducing effort and overhead related to maintenance.  
Enhanced user experience:
Applications that leverage contemporary design principles and cutting-edge technologies can offer intuitive and feature-rich digital interfaces. As a result, they deliver customer interactions that are seamless, personalized, and enjoyable.
Enhance security posture and compliance:
Older systems are more vulnerable to cyber threats and often fall short of modern compliance standards. Application modernization directly addresses this by embedding advanced security features and protocols, as well as built-in governance.
Greater productivity and teamwork:
Modernized applications enable streamlined workflows and cross-functional information flow.  By integrating modern APIs and adopting cloud-based platforms, teams gain access to real-time data and tools from anywhere, leading to greater collaboration and efficiency.

What Application Development Services Do We Offer?

We provide a comprehensive suite of offerings and solutions, that accelerate your digital transformations, all risk-free and cost-effective. Our expertise lies in leveraging cloud-native principles and agile delivery to engineer future-ready applications that drive your business value.

Portfolio assessment and modernization strategy

Containerization and orchestration

Mainframe and midrange modernization

Monolith to microservices  

Advisory and counsel

Application innovation

Ask the Experts: Q&A

Q: How do you support clients to assess the applications that need to be modernized?

A: Guided by our Marlabs Cloud Framework (MCP), we comprehensively analyze your entire application portfolio, evaluating factors like technical debt, business criticality, and security vulnerabilities. This data-driven approach helps us prioritize applications that offer the highest return on investment when modernized.
Q: How do you handle data during the application modernization process?

A: Your business data assets are critical, and we treat their migration and modernization with utmost care. We assess your existing data; migrate it securely to modern, scalable cloud-native platforms; and establish robust governance to ensure its integrity and accessibility.

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