Every now and then I hear "we need to migrate to this platform" or "we need to port the application to work on this platform", I believe both has a "meaning" in software terms, from what I understand,
Migration : Its means we will do certain changes in the existing software application to satisfy the current requirement, this tweak/changes will essentially carry forward the present software application but will support the new "platform.
Porting : It means "most of the time" a complete rewrite of the application to satisfy the new platform or requirement of the present application.
Both migration and porting can be backward compatible, but with migration the possibilty is higher than the porting, as the code base is essentially same, while porting will mostly have a new code base, which means unless and until the application demanded for backward compatibility, it will not have that!!
Coming to the base question, do we really need to do migration or porting? There is no simple answer to this question, but there are few basic assumption that will dictate which way to go. If the application is requires few tweak to work on the new platform, definetly you will want to make that changes and get the system working on the new platform instead of port to a complete software with a complete new code base, the best exampe to quote here are all VB6.0 application that are there, they can be tweaked to work on Vista Platform, even the Vista API's can be called in the same code base and mostly it will start working.
Taking the same example, is it a wise disicion to carry forward with the VB6.0 knowing there is no more development going to happen on this language and eventually no more support will be available, what to do? Even though the case is for Migration we are facing a problem that dictates a Porting of the application to .NET , to be in the market!!!
These are some of the business decision that decide which way to go, Migration or Porting!!!
The second thought on these scenario is do we really require a Porting, we know the application works fine for what it was designed and serves very well, why break the code and do a porting, why not use SOA and get this system running "AS IS" and build the new requirement as a new software and let it coexist with the existing one, these are situation for which the SOA and SAAS was meant to solve and give a oppurtunity to running application to work as is.
-Comments and suggestions!!!
Migration : Its means we will do certain changes in the existing software application to satisfy the current requirement, this tweak/changes will essentially carry forward the present software application but will support the new "platform.
Porting : It means "most of the time" a complete rewrite of the application to satisfy the new platform or requirement of the present application.
Both migration and porting can be backward compatible, but with migration the possibilty is higher than the porting, as the code base is essentially same, while porting will mostly have a new code base, which means unless and until the application demanded for backward compatibility, it will not have that!!
Coming to the base question, do we really need to do migration or porting? There is no simple answer to this question, but there are few basic assumption that will dictate which way to go. If the application is requires few tweak to work on the new platform, definetly you will want to make that changes and get the system working on the new platform instead of port to a complete software with a complete new code base, the best exampe to quote here are all VB6.0 application that are there, they can be tweaked to work on Vista Platform, even the Vista API's can be called in the same code base and mostly it will start working.
Taking the same example, is it a wise disicion to carry forward with the VB6.0 knowing there is no more development going to happen on this language and eventually no more support will be available, what to do? Even though the case is for Migration we are facing a problem that dictates a Porting of the application to .NET , to be in the market!!!
These are some of the business decision that decide which way to go, Migration or Porting!!!
The second thought on these scenario is do we really require a Porting, we know the application works fine for what it was designed and serves very well, why break the code and do a porting, why not use SOA and get this system running "AS IS" and build the new requirement as a new software and let it coexist with the existing one, these are situation for which the SOA and SAAS was meant to solve and give a oppurtunity to running application to work as is.
-Comments and suggestions!!!
