Refactoring
Refactoring modernizes your legacy application artifacts so they can seamlessly run in modern cloud environments. This process involves code and data conversion and often requires rewriting portions of your application to optimize it for the cloud. The AWS Blueprints service automates much of this refactoring process, offering end-to-end support for migrating and modernizing your mainframe applications. The refactoring process includes:- Evaluating your application inventory
- Assessing system dependencies
- Automatically transforming legacy code
- Capturing and managing various test scenarios
Automated refactoring with AWS Blueprints can significantly reduce manual effort and ensure consistency throughout your modernization journey.
Replatforming
Replatforming is another modernization approach where you transfer your mainframe application to a new computing platform without modifying its source code. This method allows a quick migration to the cloud while preserving the existing codebase. If your primary objective is to move your applications to the cloud swiftly, then replatforming is the ideal strategy. However, if you also need to modernize your application architecture and code, refactoring would be the better choice.Features of AWS Mainframe Modernization
AWS Mainframe Modernization offers a robust set of features to support your entire modernization lifecycle:- Assess: Conduct comprehensive evaluations of your project scope and plan both migration and modernization strategies effectively.
- Refactor: Leverage AWS Blueprints to convert legacy programming languages into modern macroservices or microservices, update user interfaces, and revamp software stacks.
- Replatform: Effortlessly migrate your applications to the cloud without altering source code or requiring recompilation.
- Developer IDE: Utilize an on-demand integrated development environment that accelerates coding with smart editing, debugging, instant code compilation, and unit testing.
- Managed Runtime: Enjoy a managed execution environment that continuously monitors clusters, providing self-healing compute and automated scaling to support enterprise workloads.
- CI/CD: Benefit from built-in continuous integration and delivery capabilities that help deployment teams update code reliably and reduce time-to-market.
Ensure that you assess your organization’s readiness and choose the approach—refactoring or replatforming—that best aligns with your modernization goals to avoid potential pitfalls during the migration process.