Enterprise Multi-cloud Strategies Won’t Work With Legacy Tech – Here’s Why

As organizations adopt multi-cloud strategies to remain compatible with modern business demands, there’s minimal time to spare for added issues that legacy technology brings. Rob Anderson, VP of marketing and product, application modernization, AdvancedOpens a new window , breaks down why outdated applications like mainframes are holding organizations back from reaping the benefits of multi-cloud agility. 

Over 90% of organizationsOpens a new window have a multi-cloud strategy in place. With advantages like vendor-specific products and agnosticism, simplified execution of regulatory compliance requirements, greater resilience, automation, and extended geographical presence, it’s a no-brainer for companies born into the cloud to pursue this strategy. 

Unfortunately, the newest tools and architectures being developed with cloud-native concepts are trending away from traditional IT. They can’t be replicated through the pre-cloud tech used by the majority of enterprises that still rely on legacy systems, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down. As a result, there’s a growing divergence between innovations and backward compatibility.

As multi-cloud continues to evolveOpens a new window into a mainstream best practice for organizations across all industries, any limitations that legacy code and infrastructure in its original form present will grow into detrimental liabilities such as outright incompatibility. To overcome hurdles around app development, infrastructure management and connectivity, and fully experience the powerful benefits of a multi-cloud strategy, organizations need to modernize old, outdated systems like the mainframe. 

Shrinking IT Legacy Knowledge 

Enterprises have been grappling with the shrinking IT talent pool for years. However, organizations that still rely on legacy systems such as the mainframe are feeling the burn most acutely. The talent capable of effectively running these systems, and those who specifically wrote the code, are retiring or leaving their positions at an increasing rate, making the technologies they once managed “black boxes” of undocumented information. 

While this has enabled an opportunity for new and emerging IT talent to enter these posts, the reality is that a large majority aren’t as familiar with languages and databases that make up legacy systems. Some simply don’t have an interest in taking jobs that require those skill sets. According to ReutersOpens a new window , 18.8% of COBOL developers are over the age of 55, and 60.5% are over 45.

The new generation was born from the digital age, taught the power of abstraction and cloud-friendly languages, and harbor little interest in the likes of COBOL, CA-Gen, CA-Telon, or Assembler. It’s a problem that’s driving 89% of organizations to say they’re concerned about having access to the right IT talent to maintain and manage their legacy systems. Beyond cross-training IT teams and hiring freelancers, the solution to address the lack of IT talent lies in modernizing technologies to keep up with today’s business environment.

See More: Hybrid Cloud: First Step Towards System Integration

Securing and Managing Multi-cloud Environments With Legacy Code

While multi-cloud brings enhanced connectivity to an enterprise, it also brings added complexity. To reduce complexity, improve speed and agility, enable multi-cloud networking and secure connectivity between carriers and cloud providers, the secure access service edge (SASE) model is becoming an increasingly popular solution to better secure and connect multi-cloud environments.

With cloud-native security functions such as secure web gateways, cloud access security brokers and zero-trust virtual private network (VPN) overlay, SASE makes it easy to scale and automate cloud-agnostic connectivity while increasing security. Gartner projectsOpens a new window SASE to be the future secure networking model that enterprises should aim for. The challenge, however, is that SASE, designed to be cloud-native, can only go so far when it’s used with legacy systems. SASE is just an example of emerging technology that doesn’t account for legacy, but it’s part of a growing trend. Ultimately, the limitations that legacy systems present will grow into liabilities.

See More: 7 Multi-Cloud Challenges and How To Overcome Them

To Remain Innovative, Agility Is Key 

Sculpting change and accelerating business growth is a top priority for organizations this next year, according to Gartner. Yet there are still 220 billion lines of COBOL codeOpens a new window currently being used in production today, revealing the massive disconnect between the business goals and current practices. The same idea applies to organizations that are embracing multi-cloud but still retaining legacy technology. 

Today’s emerging cutting-edge tools (like SASE) are increasingly reducing their consideration of compatibility with legacy systems. Code refactoring – altering the code’s internal structure to cloud-native languages, such as Java and C#, without changing its purpose – is the ideal solution for tackling this challenge. 

To bring unmatched agility and power to cloud deployments, IT leaders need access to updated resources and systems that can keep them nimble to better drive innovation in the organization. Refactoring tends to be the optimal method to retain the business logic, functionality and data of legacy systems in multi-cloud environments without the shackles of legacy mainframes and code.

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