What we deliver
Legacy systems often run critical parts of a business. They also accumulate risk: unsupported runtimes that no longer receive security fixes, frameworks that few engineers know, slow and fragile releases, and integrations that are hard to change. Twara Technologies modernises these systems in measured steps, preserving the business logic that makes them valuable while moving them onto technology that is supported, secure and easier to evolve.
Typical scope
- Web and desktop applications on outdated frameworks or unsupported runtime versions.
- Monolithic applications that need to be broken into manageable components.
- Systems tied to ageing on-premises infrastructure or end-of-life operating systems.
- Databases needing version upgrades, engine changes or schema restructuring.
- Batch processes, file-based integrations and scheduled jobs that need to become APIs or events.
- User interfaces that need to be rebuilt for the web or mobile.
Choosing a modernisation route
There is no single right answer. AWS describes seven migration strategies, including retire, retain, rehost, replatform, repurchase, and refactor or re-architect, and the same vocabulary is useful for modernisation decisions. That guidance also notes that refactoring is the most complex and costly option and, for large migrations, recommends moving applications first and modernising them afterwards. We weigh these routes for each system:
| Route | Suits systems that… |
|---|---|
| Upgrade in place | Are well structured but on an outdated version of their framework or runtime. |
| Re-platform | Work well but depend on infrastructure or a database that should be replaced by a managed service. |
| Re-architect incrementally | Are business-critical and must change frequently, but cannot be rebuilt in one go. |
| Replace with a product | Perform commodity functions now well served by commercial or SaaS software. |
| Retire | Have little remaining use and can be archived. |
Technologies we work with
Target platforms are chosen for long-term support and your team’s skills. Common destinations include current .NET and Java LTS releases, Node.js with TypeScript, Python, React or Angular front ends, Flutter or native mobile apps, and managed PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server. Applications are typically packaged in containers and deployed through automated pipelines. Where we choose a runtime, we favour supported long-term releases; for example, Node.js advises that production applications should use only Active LTS or Maintenance LTS releases.
How we approach it
- Discover. Analyse the codebase, database, integrations, usage and operating costs. Interview users to learn which features matter and which are no longer used.
- Protect current behaviour. Write characterisation tests around critical functions so that changes can be checked against what the system does today.
- Plan increments. Divide the system into slices that can be modernised and released independently, ordered by value and risk.
- Replace gradually. The strangler fig pattern, described by Martin Fowler, builds new functionality alongside the old system and moves behaviour across piece by piece until the legacy parts can be removed. In our designs, a routing layer or API facade typically directs each request to the old or new implementation.
- Migrate data. Move and reconcile data in step with functionality, running old and new in parallel where the business needs proof.
- Decommission. Retire legacy components once their replacements have proved themselves, archiving data as required.
Quality and security
- Behaviour verified. Characterisation and regression tests guard against silent changes to calculations, rules and reports.
- Security uplift. Modernised components are reviewed against the OWASP Top 10:2025, and outdated authentication or encryption is replaced.
- Reconciled data. Every data migration is checked with counts, totals and sampled record comparisons, signed off by business owners.
- Reversible steps. Each release can be rolled back, and the legacy path stays available until the new one is accepted.
- Documentation. Recovered business rules and new architecture decisions are written down for your team.
Engagement options
- Modernisation assessment: a fixed-scope analysis producing a strategy and phased roadmap.
- Phased delivery: Twara Technologies modernises the system increment by increment, with value delivered at each phase.
- Maintain and modernise: we keep the legacy system running under application maintenance while modernisation proceeds alongside.
Contact us to discuss the systems you need to modernise.