Recreating the custom logic that was built into a legacy integration engine is one of the most challenging aspects of an integration engine migration, because while some engines offer tools that help translate the legacy code into a compatible language, this approach is problematic at best.
The challenges of migrating logic can stem from a combination of the following:
- A lack of documentation of the legacy logic
- The differing stylistic approaches of multiple developers, which can make the logic difficult to follow
- A minimal-risk approach to not altering existing logic (i.e., appending the end results with additional logic that is both convoluted and inefficient)
- The lack of functionality of many legacy engines (legacy engines require exponentially more coding than modern engines do)
To address these challenges, I recommend an approach that doesn’t carry forward these issues into the new engine and capitalizes on the vast improvements of logic, workflow, and functionality that come with a modern engine, which would be impossible in a direct translation of the legacy code.
Look for an engine that comes bundled with tools that will help your team recreate existing logic. Rather than build logic by going line by line through legacy code and relying on human trial and error, these tools use advanced algorithms to reverse-engineer the logic and analyze multiple before-and-after messages that have been successfully processed through the legacy engine.
This approach removes the need to map outdated languages and/or carry forward the previous inefficient design. Instead, the tools design a streamlined approach to create identical message translations within the integration engine. The end result is logic that is—going forward—easier to maintain, automatically documented, and standardized.
Recreating a legacy integration engine’s custom logic has long been a challenging prospect and one of the biggest obstacles in the migration process, but it no longer has to be. With intelligent tools from a reputable vendor, you’ll do much more than execute this task with ease: you’ll free your organization up to focus on the work they do best, rather than waste time endlessly supporting the very system that’s meant to support them.
