Application Modernization and how can Transformation Advisor help

Cloud environments and services have exploded the possibilities for deriving value from existing and new data sources. Application requirements in the cognitive era have changed significantly, so in order to respond to this changing market dynamic, businesses must be able to modernize their existing applications while maintaining control of their budgets, managing risk, and investing in new innovations.

What is modernization?

For many, application modernization is just part of a larger digital transformation. The challenge is to find a platform that allows both existing and new applications to converge, providing a unified solution that is robust, secure, scalable, and extensible for existing and new applications alike.

The business expects faster implementation of new ideas to capture new markets, launch new products, and provide better services. For a company to be able to complete its transformation, it will need to understand its existing applications and how each of them can become part of the new era. By understanding the business, technical, and economic objectives, a company can decide whether an application should be altered or not, and whether it will run best in a private or public cloud environment.

The process of modernizing applications and moving to the cloud can be a large undertaking. Careful planning is needed to prepare business inventory and infrastructure and to determine the best path forward for each application. If you don't yet have a cloud platform but are ready to begin the assessment for your modernization journey, installing IBM Cloud™ Transformation Advisor locally can help you get started. If you want to create a pipeline and deploy to the cloud, Transformation Advisor is included with IBM WebSphere Hybrid Edition.

How does Transformation Advisor help?

IBM Cloud Transformation Advisor has the capability to quickly evaluate your on-premises applications for rapid deployment on WebSphere Application Server and Liberty on public and private cloud environments. The first step is to download and run a custom data collector on your application servers. Results from the scan are uploaded to Transformation Advisor where a detailed analysis is provided.

Transformation Advisor creates a high-level inventory of the content and structure of each application. This information is used to determine complexity and identify the shared library and MQ Queue Manager dependencies for your applications. Transformation Advisor also flags potential issues and estimates a development cost to complete a move to the cloud. Detailed reports with advice, suggestions, and best practices are provided to ensure that the application runs correctly in the preferred cloud environment.


Transformation Advisor helps you on your way to the cloud at these critical stages:

Assessment

  • Evaluates applications based on business needs
  • Inventories application content and structure
  • Provides a migration complexity
  • Identifies potential problems for moving to the cloud

Strategic planning

  • Identifies key applications that require replacement or upgrade
  • Estimates effort for resolving migration issues
  • Provides assessments for different modernization options

Execution

  • Generates a migration bundle to assist with containerization and deployment
  • Creates files tailored to your applications
  • Identifies dependencies to help you complete the bundle contents

Transformation Advisor analyzes the following middleware:

Java EE application servers

  • WebLogic Server V6.x+
  • IBM WebSphere® Application Server V6.1, or later
  • JBoss Red Hat® JBoss v4.x+
  • Apache Tomcat V6.0 (and later)
  • Java applications directly

Messaging

  • IBM Integration Bus Version 10.0
  • IBM App Connect Enterprise Version 11.0

To get started on your modernization journey, you must understand the approaches that are right for your inventory. Transformation Advisor helps you understand the path that is right for you so you can select the best entry point to deliver value at each step in your journey.

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