Fundamentally, organizations modernize existing applications by moving them to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in order to optimize everything from performance to reliability to customer experience and more. For the business, the goals and measurable outcomes are typically some combination of the following:
- Improve the customer experience with better reliability and performance
- Reduce operational cost and effort
- Accelerate time-to-market for new features
- Develop and enhance technical and business agility
While modernizing existing applications can take several different forms, this white paper focuses on the replatforming approach, also known as component modernization. For an introduction to the six approaches to application modernization on AWS (retire, repurchase, retain, rehost, replatform, and refactor), read our ebook The Enterprise Guide to Continuous Application Modernization.
While rehosting involves moving an existing application to AWS without making changes to the business logic, replatforming requires something more—namely, optimizing the application by modernizing one or more of its components. Components are essentially an endpoint, something that the application interacts with via a standardized API, such as a web server, relational database, or messaging system.
Somewhat riskier than rehosting, yet less complex than refactoring, replatforming can be categorized as a modernization “middle road” when it comes to risk and complexity, because modernizing components usually involves some level of changes to the code. Nonetheless, how do you know when the replatforming approach is the right decision? Which applications are best suited for this approach? And, more importantly, how can you further reduce project risk while streamlining the effort and maximizing all the benefits of a replatformed application on AWS?
Here’s a hint: observability and best practices. This white paper presents the knowledge and experience of New Relic working closely with AWS and explores how you can make informed decisions to optimize your efforts and outcomes.