Your application runs on outdated technology
It still does the job. But its foundation no longer gets fixes, and every change costs more than the last.
Does this sound familiar?
Your application was well built, with the tools of its day. It handles your quotes, your orders, and it still does the job. But its framework has stopped moving. The world around it has not.
- The framework, the language or the database is no longer maintained: AngularJS, PHP 5 or 7, an old version of Java or the .NET Framework. No more security fixes come out.
- Your host or cloud provider announces the end of a version, with a date, and asks you to migrate.
- Libraries have known security flaws, but nobody dares update them for fear of breaking everything.
- The application can only be built or deployed from one old machine, which nobody wants to switch off.
- Developers refuse to touch it, or charge more to do so. Your own team has other priorities.
- A partner modernises its API, and an integration that worked for years breaks overnight.
What this technology really costs you
Outdated technology costs nothing as long as nothing moves. The trouble is that everything around it moves.
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Exposure
Since your application was last updated, how many security flaws have been published for its components? And who would notice if one of them were exploited?
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The incident
If your host retires the old version on the announced date, or an integration breaks on Monday morning, how long can your team work without the tool?
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The price of every change
What did the last small change cost? More or less than the same change three years ago?
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Recruiting
How many developers still agree to work on this technology, and at what price?
Nobody adds these costs up, and they grow for as long as nothing changes. The day one of them becomes urgent, you decide under the pressure of an outage.
Secure it this week
Five checks that do not touch the code. Useful even if you never call us.
- Versions. Write down the exact versions of the language, the framework, the database and the server's operating system, and the end-of-support date of each: it is public.
- What is exposed. List what can be reached from the internet: the application, its admin pages, its APIs, sometimes the database. Whatever does not need to be public can often be closed or filtered without touching the code.
- Backups. A recent copy of the database and the code, stored outside the hosting, and a test restore. Before any upgrade, that is your safety net.
- The build machine. If only one computer can build the application and put it online, do not switch it off: make a full copy of it, and have the steps written down.
- Integrations. List the external services the application connects to (payments, accounting, partner portals, e‑mail delivery), and sign up for their change announcements.
The full checklist, with access and domain names: legacy application takeover.
Secure, upgrade or rebuild?
There is no single answer for every application. There is an order.
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Secure what is exposed
Close what does not need to be public, update what can be updated safely, test the backups. It is the health check's urgent fix, the one we would not want to leave you without.
The health check -
Upgrade step by step
Add tests around what matters, then move up one version at a time while the tool keeps running. At a fixed price, starting where it pays back the most.
Stabilize -
Rebuild, when it is cheaper
When migrating costs more than starting again on a sound base. Not before.
Rebuild
The health check measures which of these options costs you the least. You decide with figures, not under the pressure of an end-of-support date.
How we take over your application
The three-step takeover: scope, stabilize, rebuild. And always the health check first.
For an end-of-life stack, the health check measures what matters: the versions and dependencies that have fallen behind, what is exposed, and what an upgrade costs compared with a rebuild.
Do you have a technical team, but it is taken up with new projects? We work alongside it: we take the upgrade off its plate, document it, and hand back a tool the team can work on again.
Where to start?
Or is the real problem that your team has no time, or your developer has left?
Every situation: legacy application takeover.