Success StoriesFrom Legacy to Leading Edge: Transforming Critical Applications with Cloud Solutions
The Challenge
When a longstanding client, a leader in the financial services industry, faced mounting challenges with their aging technology stack, they turned to Winmill for a reliable cloud solution. Their legacy systems included an unstable, web-based PHP application prone to crashes during upgrades, and an obsolete COBOL desktop application facing imminent support challenges as key developers retired. Previous attempts with offshore developers had resulted in two wasted years and an unusable modernization attempt.
The Winmill Solution
Understanding the client’s critical need for stability and continuity, Winmill proposed a phased migration to modern cloud-native architectures. Leveraging Azure’s robust capabilities, Winmill embarked on transforming both the PHP and COBOL applications into scalable, reliable cloud solutions. The approach involved stabilizing the existing code bases while incrementally migrating functionality to the new architecture. This ensured that business operations remained uninterrupted during the transition phase.
Key Features
- Incremental Migration: Winmill implemented a phased approach, migrating critical components of the PHP application to Azure-hosted environments. Each phase ensured seamless integration with existing systems, maintaining business continuity throughout.
- COBOL Transformation: The aging COBOL application was transformed into a web-based application, leveraging Azure’s platform capabilities. This enabled future scalability and flexibility.
- High Availability and Reliability: Winmill ensured that business-critical systems achieved five 9s (99.999%) availability by designing a robust architecture that could scale on-demand to meet increasing operational demands without downtime.
- Automated Continuous Integration: Winmill leverages Azure DevOps for automated CI/CD processes, eliminating manual build and deployment tasks with custom scripts to streamline updates and ensure continuous integration and delivery.
- Cost Efficiency: By migrating incrementally and optimizing cloud resources, Winmill delivered cost-effective solutions that aligned with the client’s budget and operational goals.
A Modern Azure Architecture
Results
A significant factor in achieving reliability and ease of maintenance was Winmill’s commitment to a fully cloud-native architecture. By eliminating third-party services and relying entirely on Azure’s managed services, Winmill ensured that every component was automatically kept up to date with the latest security patches, libraries, and hosting environments. This serverless approach means there are no operating systems to manage, reducing the complexity and risk associated with traditional infrastructure.
Key Azure services included App Gateway/WAF for enhanced security, Storage Blobs for hosting web pages, Function Apps for scalable application services, Managed Database Instances for efficient data storage, Azure API Manager for seamless API management, and Azure Firewalls and security groups for comprehensive protection.
Conclusion
Through strategic planning and meticulous execution, Winmill successfully modernized critical business applications for our client, ensuring they could continue to operate efficiently in the digital age. The project exemplifies Winmill’s commitment to understanding client needs, delivering innovative solutions, and safeguarding business continuity through technological advancements.
"People don't call us when it's easy. They call us when their business needs a partner who understands the complexities of modernizing legacy systems into agile, cloud-native solutions."