The Blessing and Curse of Rejuvenating Legacy Systems
P.J. Jakovljevic - September 16, 2005

Situational Analysis

Every independent software vendor (ISV) finds itself "between a hammer and an anvil" where they have to cater to the needs of both existing and prospective customers. On the one hand, existing customers wish to preserve their current information technology (IT) assets via appetizing "bite-size" application upgrades only, and without major disruptive technology shifts. On the other hand, to win new customers, every ISV has to be able to feature the latest and most modern technologies where rich functionality and rapid implementation tracks. To bridge this gap, many leading vendors have embarked on providing next-generation development platforms and even more comprehensive infrastructure platforms with product evolution rather than revolution in mind. In other words, they allow continual product functionality enhancements, with the ability to create custom extensions rather than ripping out the current system and replacing it with a new one. They also feasibly integrate other applications and complementary products...