Before we say… we replace the IT system with a new one

The past year has affected all of us and has changed a lot in all aspects of our lives. Much of what has changed will stay with us for a long time - after all, our habits and behavior have changed. We have adapted and look to the future with hope.

Business conditions have changed, the economy has changed, and the requirements for IT systems have changed. Abruptly and unexpectedly, things shifted to backing the crazy changes in the real world.

Nobody expected such requirements, nobody could have foreseen it.

The IT world has survived... and now, when we are wiser about the experience of last year, the time has come to verify and set new safety margins in the maintenance of IT systems. Regardless of whether we use ITIL, ITSM, SDLC or "common sense" methodology, we must determine whether our system is approaching, or perhaps it is dangerously close to achieving the maximum effective life cycle.

Key performance indicators

Each time we want to verify the condition of the IT system, we should define key performance indicators in the basic areas of the analysis:

  • system capacity and performance measured by the maximum number of customers served by the system, the maximum number of transactions, the time of performing basic business and maintenance processes. Scaling the system vertically (increasing the computing power of a single server), scaling the system horizontally (parallelizing the processing on subsequent servers) have their limitations. Flexible computing power management - virtualization, application containers - is our system ready for such a solution?
  • maintenance costs and infrastructure expansion possibilities - it is an essential part of system lifecycle management. The increase in infrastructure computing power (number, type of processors) is a frequent determinant of the cost of database licenses, 3rd party software. And what if the possibilities of adding more processors will also end? What if 3rd party vendor policy necessitates costly system rebuild? Or maybe the technology of building our system is so exotic that assembling a team to operate it is almost impossible?
  • possibility of integration with new systems - new technologies emerge with the growth of business and the implemented internal and external systems. The use of Integration Platforms allows to solve most of these types of issues, but what if the efficiency of combining new and old communication technologies does not ensure the appropriate times of running business processes?
  • time and cost of introducing changes - the world and our immediate surroundings have been changing recently at a surprising pace and no one is surprised that business support systems have to keep up with business expectations and ensure a competitive advantage. Appropriately scaled development and system change implementation teams ensure optimization in this area. What if technical and personal conditions affect time and cost so significantly that they shift the delivery of changes beyond acceptable limits?
  • Cyber ​​Security - security of our clients, security of business processes, authentication and accountability of users, transaction authorization, resistance to external attacks and internal frauds... this issue cannot be ignored either.
  • availability of alternative solutions - it is an important issue that allows to estimate the cost of implementing a new system. The greater the variety of available solutions, the easier it will be to choose the target solution, it will be easier to complete the migration and maintenance team.

There are many aspects to consider, many questions, so don't wait because time is passing by. Business is changing and IT systems must be ready for new challenges.

What is certain is the fact that we must be ready for changes, the more so as the implementation of a new system also means the possibility of introducing changes to the business model, introducing new business products and optimizing technologies and processes.

And if we decide on the new system - what next?

Well… yes, migration to the new system is a big undertaking, but it's not impossible. And we like challenges, we like changes, we like to enter new areas.

How to approach migration? - more about it in the next post.

Stay tuned!