Legacy Systems: Transformation Strategies

Corporations have been trying to retire legacy systems for the past couple of decades. Each new technology (be it client/server, ERP packaged apps, etc) were supposed to put the nail in the coffin for legacy systems. Yet, legacy systems continue to thrive despite attempts to retire them. One reason why they continue to exist is that in many instances, they support business processes in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. Bill's book views this area more as a transformation effort (evolution) rather than wholesale legacy replacement (revolution). This book is a must read for IT departments as they struggle to remain relavent in an era of outsourcing. The strategies outlined in this book will help the IT department become a partner with functional business units in delivering solutions that address burning business problems. The focus shifts to providinig measurable value to the business as opposed to implementing unified and elegant technologies.

Bill has filled this book with tremendous value for any one working with existing systems of any kind. He builds in the flexibility of approach by mapping many common and not-so-common methods and strategies through his exploration of specific case studies. Chapter 3 is a valuable item on its own - rarely have I seen such a thorough and clear examination of all the different 'movements' in IT in the last 10 years. Nice job, Bill.

Legacy Systems are both challenge and opportunity for firms seeking to exploit eBusiness and beyond. This book is a necessary and very readable text for all 'old fogie' mainframers and 'hacker' PC types... as well as anyone intending to take control of in-house software to exploit any emerging technology and business opportunity effectively. While not glossing over serious technical, management, and cost issues, it is ultimately quite optimistic.COBOL is not dead, but growing, along with JAVA and some nascent competitors. CICS handles more activity than the Internet. Many eBusiness promoters have implied that one can hold core legacy systems constant... and only change the connecting data exchange software. In most cases, quite the opposite is true. Unfortunately, a lot of the valuable information about systems gathered during Y2K was discarded, instead of being used as a baseline for strategic optimization, integration, migration, package replacement, and - most definitely - data integration along the B2B and B2C models.This book walks the reader through a variety of scenarios based on real successes and failures, with software tools playing a key role. Perhaps most importantly, it refutes the myth that the COBOL language and COBOL systems do not evolve on a cost-effective basis. It also makes the case that the battlefield is not COBOL against JAVA, but embedded business rules, access to data, and communications vs. inertia. B2B and B2C open up internal corporate systems to communications from orders of magnitudes of new users - not all of whom are friendly, knowledgeable, and honorable. It is incumbent on IT management to take a renewed interest on the quality, discipline, and security mechanisms present in those legacy systems. Fortunately, it can be a manageable, cost-effective, and scalable process. To provide practical help, Ulrich provides an excellent list of tool vendors and products in the Appendix, noting that it is illustrative, not definitive. In fact, for anyone considering a legacy system transformation, this Appendix is a good starting point on ideas of how to leverage the quality and productivity of the IT staff. Indeed, companies may find tools already in corporate libraries, awaiting integration into a tool-based transformation methodology. As the methology takes hold, it becomes easier to cost-justify and to incorporate new tools to continue such leveraging. The author comments little on the reaction of the IT staff of addressing such tools and disciplines. From my own experience, I can add that technical staff initially fearful of 'loss of creativity' quickly discover that such application-independent tools multiply rather than diminish their options. The implicit standardization that tools bring to the table also fosters teamwork while reducing redundancy, paper-pushing, and busywork. In short, I endorse the book wholeheartedly. I wish I had written it myself.

IT trends come and go, but each new technology adds more legacy systems to application portfolios. Legacy systems account for a disproportionate share of IT spending, yet few authors tackle the subject, and even fewer offer actionable advice for capturing and extending the value of those systems. William Ulrich's Legacy Systems Transformation Strategies is a long overdue reference guide for IT professionals seeking to modernize the legacy war horses in their corporate portfolios. Relying on many years of experience in the trenches, Ulrich offers many approaches and options for supporting today's business requirements from data mining to application modularization and EAI (enterprise application integration). He provides concise and practical techniques for all aspects of legacy transformations including planning, data rationalization and business rule capture and reuse. If you own, manage, or support legacy systems, invest in this book! You won't regret it.

Bill Ulrich has done it again. He's taken complex technical topics and rendered them into easily grasped themes. As companies wrestle with the challenges inherent in enabling their new Web-centric systems to communicate with their legacy systems, they'll need the insights to be found in this book. If you're looking to get the most bang for your technology dollar, this is a great place to start!