As the race for digital supremacy rages ahead, enterprises often face the dilemma of having to invest in the right digital roadmaps with minimal risks. One of the key scenarios they face in this regard is choosing between a fully-fledged rearchitecturing and modernization overhaul or maintaining their existing digital ecosystem with minor incremental changes like rehosting or moving a couple of components into a new deployment model like microservices.
The leap into full-blown rearchitecture initiatives is often driven by the allure of cloud-native narratives spun by vendors. The reality could have been a different one because most of their problems may need only a precise and well-crafted surgical modernization rather than a total overhaul. Most companies do not need a ground-up rearchitecture. Instead, what they need is a disciplined decision framework that helps them evaluate whether rehosting, refactoring, or true rearchitecture is the right path forward.
How can enterprises take a call on whether to modernize or maintain their enterprise systems?
While a generic approach to resolving this dilemma may be tough, it is quite possible for businesses to get a clear idea of the direction they want to move by reflecting on some critical questions about their key enterprise systems. Let’s explore some of them:
Is the system equipped to handle new business needs?
The first question to consider is whether the system can keep pace with new business requirements. Businesses are constantly under pressure to respond rapidly to shifting customer expectations, regulatory updates, and emerging market opportunities. If their digital experiences struggle to accommodate near- or mid-term demands without extensive workarounds, it can impact growth prospects. In such a situation, a complete re-architecting exercise is deeply warranted. Conversely, if it adapts to evolving requirements efficiently, then all it needs is targeted maintenance and optimization initiatives.
What is the typical lead time to build new features?
The next question will be about the time for development and deploying of new features. In highly competitive markets, a lengthy development cycle can hurt business as competitors can win customers with better response and faster innovation. Systems that require months of coding, testing, and deployment for routine enhancements slow the organization down. In such a situation, the best option is to go for a rearchitecture exercise that introduces flexibility through approaches like cloud-native services, or via microservices and other modular development models. However, if the development and delivery timelines are considerably faster, then the existing system can be maintained without many issues and is in fact, a very low-risk option as well.
How much technical debt exists?
A clear-eyed evaluation of the technical debt of the existing system is critical for making a decision on rearchitecture of any digital system. More precisely, leaders need to assess their technical prowess in 4 critical areas:
Infrastructure
Check for the use of outdated servers or networking components that limit performance or scalability.
Performance
Evaluate the slow response times or bottlenecks that affect business operations.
Technology stack
Look for obsolete frameworks, unsupported programming languages, or legacy tools.
Documentation
Check for the lack of clear, up-to-date documentation about software, as its absence makes changes risky and complex.
If the existing system has high technical debt, it is a sign to move to a rearchitecture program. Monolithic codebases, tightly coupled services, or outdated infrastructure often result in cascading failures that can compromise the entire digital experience. At this point, they need to consider rearchitecture rather than simple rehosting as the scenario is no longer just about optimization but about risk management and resilience. Delays can increase operational risk and escalate maintenance costs. However, if incidents are rare but high-severity, the response may lie in targeted redundancy, observability tooling, or cloud failover strategies rather than a full redesign. However, if the technical debt is reasonably low, there is only a need for timely incremental tweaks and optimizations.
Taking a call
Understanding the fundamentals of doing a rearchitecture exercise is important for leaders to prevent risky cost escalations. However, as the technology landscape evolves globally, it may not be possible for them to have a clear picture of how to align business priorities with the capabilities of their digital ecosystem. This is where an experienced technology partner like Wissen can be a major asset for businesses. Our consultants can deep dive into every operational facet of your business and understand where technology limitations persist, and create a roadmap to either resolve them with minor improvements or build a complete architecture overhaul framework to propel the business into its next dimension of growth without breaking the bank.
Get in touch with us to know more.
FAQ
How can technology rearchitecture improve release velocity for enterprise applications?
It can unlock better efficiency through better DevOps pipelines, enable granular control through microservices, and assure stable release velocity with CI/CD best practices.
Why is low latency important for enterprise applications?
Applications having high latency will cause delays for customer-facing interactions, resulting in eroding trust and loyalty.
How is dependency a measure of architectural resilience for enterprise applications?
If developers find themselves spending more effort mapping dependency graphs than shipping features, it is a strong signal that rearchitecture may be required to decouple services.
