Strangle Strategy

There are two kinds of software developers: those who develop and maintain and those who never deploy to production. Eventually, you will need to migrate your legacy system. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗴 is a pattern you must know for legacy system migrations. This pattern incrementally replaces specific pieces of functionality with new applications and services. To implement the 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗴 pattern, you create a facade that intercepts requests going to the backend legacy system. The facade routes these requests either to the legacy application or the new services. And gradually migrate existing features to the new system while consumers keep using the same interface. With the facade safely routing users to the correct application, you can add functionality while ensuring the legacy application continues functioning. Over time, all features migrate to the new system, and the legacy system is no longer necessary. The Strangler Fig pattern is a practical approach for migrating legacy systems. ✅ Allow for gradual migration. ✅ Low-risk transition to a new architecture. ✅ Avoid disruption to end-users. ✅ Maintain the integrity of the legacy system during the migration process. Are you improving your legacy system or pushing a giant mud ball? Share your strategy and help a Software Engineer out there.

🚀 The Strangler Pattern: It’s the talk of the town in legacy system modernization—but how many are actually doing it? Spoiler alert: Not enough. Here’s the deal: The Strangler Pattern isn’t just a fancy term to throw around in meetings. It’s a practical, risk-managed approach to modernizing legacy systems that lets you build new features around the old, gradually replacing the legacy parts without pulling the rug out from under your users. But let’s get real. For all the hype, it’s rare to see it implemented effectively. Why? Because too many teams either don’t know where to start or they get bogged down in the complexities of their legacy systems. So, let’s cut through the noise with some actionable tips: 1️⃣ Start with Low-Hanging Fruit: Identify the parts of your system that are causing the most pain or are the easiest to replace. Begin by building new services around these components, gradually siphoning off functionality from the old system. Domain Driven Design tools like Event Storming are your friend! 2️⃣ Focus on Mission Value: Don’t just refactor for the sake of it. Target the areas that will deliver the most mission value. If your modernization efforts aren’t moving the needle, you’re wasting time. 3️⃣ Parallel Development: Run your legacy and new systems in parallel. This reduces risk by allowing you to validate the new system’s functionality before decommissioning the old one. It’s like having a safety net while you walk the tightrope. 4️⃣ Automate Testing and Deployment: Automation is your friend here. Use automated tests to ensure the new services work seamlessly with the old system. And automate your deployment pipeline to make the transition as smooth as possible. 5️⃣ Monitor and Iterate: Don’t just set it and forget it. Keep a close eye on the performance of both your old and new systems. Use feedback to continuously improve and gradually “strangle” the legacy system out of existence. 🏃♀️ Modernizing legacy systems is a marathon, not a sprint. The Strangler Pattern lets you pace yourself, but only if you commit to actually doing the work. It’s time to move beyond the buzzwords and start implementing. Who’s ready to stop talking about the Strangler Pattern and start using it? #LegacySystems #StranglerPattern #Modernization #TechDebt #SoftwareEngineering #DigitalTransformation #DevOps

1 little-known design principle to save your entire project from rewriting: (or suffocating it with outdated technology) Strangler Fig. This software design pattern has one purpose: To incrementally replace parts of a system without the need for a complete rewrite. Here's who it's for: 1. If you're a developer working on legacy code, this is for you. 2. If you're looking for a smooth migration strategy, this is for you. 3. If you're facing the challenge of modernizing a monolithic system, this is for you. Here's how it works: 1. Identify the parts to replace in your existing system. ↳ Typically outdated or inefficient components. 2. Build a new system or module alongside the old one. ↳ Use a modern solution. 3. Gradually redirect traffic from the old system to the new one. ↳ Step by step, to minimize disruption. 4. Test and monitor. ↳ To ensure both systems work smoothly during the transition. 5. Remove the old module. ↳ Once the new one fully takes over. By taking safe, manageable steps, you modernize your app without risking a complete rewrite or downtime. Small steps. Remarkable results.

"Replacing Legacy Systems, One Step at a Time with Data Streaming: The Strangler Fig Approach" Modernizing #legacy systems does not need to mean a risky big bang rewrite. Many enterprises are now embracing the #StranglerFig Pattern to migrate gradually, reduce risk, and modernize at their own pace. When combined with #DataStreaming using #ApacheKafka and #ApacheFlink, this approach becomes even more powerful. It allows: - Real time synchronization between old and new systems - Incremental modernization without downtime - True decoupling of applications for scalable, cloud native architectures - Trusted, enriched, and governed data products in motion This is why organizations like #Allianz are using data streaming as the backbone of their #ITModernization strategy. The result is not just smoother migrations, but also improved agility, faster innovation, and stronger business resilience. By contrast, many companies have learned that #ReverseETL is only a fragile workaround. It introduces latency, complexity, and unnecessary cost. In today’s world, batch cannot deliver the real time insights that modern enterprises demand. Data streaming ensures that modernization is no longer a bottleneck but a business enabler. It empowers organizations to innovate without disrupting operations, migrate at their own speed, and prepare for the future of event driven, AI powered applications. Are you ready to transform legacy systems without the risks of a big bang rewrite? Which part of your legacy landscape would you “strangle” first with real time streaming, and why? More details: https://lnkd.in/erxrBJNn

If you’re modernizing an application, strangling beats rewrite. The current system is running the business and a rewrite will always be chasing changes. On top of that, if you’re making that drastic a change, you’ve no idea why the current system is actually doing. Strangling is the second most dangerous way to modernize because if the work to modernize gets deprioritized, you could wind up with components that are half decoupled. Those are more complex than the original code. So, try to keep each decoupling change scoped to be smaller than Mean Time to Leadership Change and make sure everyone is aligned to finishing that work once it begins.

How to get a large code base under control. 200+ projects in 1 solution! That's the challenge one of my friends is dealing with right now. Here is what I would do: I would definitly NOT start by refactoring straight away! First of all I would try to get a deep understanding of the business, and more specifically which of its capabilities are supported by this code base. So I would study functional documentation, process descriptions, their website, whatever functional material I can find. While I'm learning I will start to build up a map of how these capabilities relate to each other. This map will eventually serve as a guideline to start splitting up the code base (along its natural business boundaries). In general there are two strategies to follow : - Strangling (named after a strangler fig) - Extraction Strangling means building specific business capabilities again, next to the old system, while staying backward compatible with the old model. Over time, once all capabilities are reimplemented, the old system can be decomissioned as no one is using it anymore. Strangling is best performed on a decent chunk of the capability map, so that the business gets sufficient (and ideally some new) value from this effort. Extraction means locating all the code, that currently supports a given business capability, inside the system, bring it together and decouple it from its dependencies. Once all dependencies are removed, this capability can be extracted from the code base and managed autonomously. Extraction is best performed on a low level capability first as those tend to have the least dependencies. Cutting dependencies works both ways, so over time other sections of the map will also become easier to extract. Strangling initially looks to be more work, but in my opinion it has a higher success rate, so I'll try to go for that approach if possible.