One thing is clear when you look back at the past decades of IT and software engineering: everything changes. Periods of gradual improvement in hardware, language, infrastructure, and methodology are punctuated by paradigm-shifting innovation.

This evolution has allowed IT to stay ahead of ever-changing business demands, but it has not been easy or cheap. Many IT budgets are consumed by maintaining the old stuff and staying current with upgrades and migrations can deplete funding and resources before business benefits are realized. With the right approach, it is possible to modernize a portfolio of applications in a way that yields value quicker and at lower cost — making it easier and less expensive to stay current as products and technologies continue to evolve.

In this whitepaper, Red Hat takes a look at three specific software development patterns to modernize existing applications. These modernization patterns address transitioning existing applications to more modern architectures and infrastructure and making them accessible to new applications. This paper also examines the conditions that lead to rewriting when that is the only option. These patterns help enterprises figure out how to get the most out of existing applications and establish a practice for continuous modernization that will serve the business now and in the future.