The Sixth Flag, Inc. has announced the release of webify.tsf™, a framework for assisting independent software vendors (ISVs) and organizations looking to move their legacy Windows™ applications to the cloud.
"The IT industry correctly touts the transformative impact cloud computing has had on computing cost and agility of service delivery, but such radical change often fails to address legacy and even orphaned technologies that are still running key business systems. In our conversations with prospective customers and partners, legacy applications invariably are brought up as a driving factor in roadmap development and vendor selection," says Pete Kofod, founder of The Sixth Flag, Inc.
Many business applications have decades of development and are deeply committed to the Windows platform. Because these applications are often developed either in-house or by boutique software development firms, resource constraints make it difficult and time consuming migrate the application to web technology.
"It is common to see Fortune 100 companies struggling with critical legacy applications that have no growth path towards a web platform," says Shane Yocum, VP Business Development for TSF. "Instead, even very large enterprises are forced to cobble together various technologies to deliver critical applications to their increasingly distributed workforce."
Companies face countless challenges in migrating legacy applications to the cloud. In extreme circumstances, a critical application has lost vendor support. Application development was abandoned or the vendor went out of business altogether, yet organizations made a strategic commitment to the application, and replacing it requires costly software acquisition and significant disruption to business processes and adjustments to the apps themselves so they will function in the cloud. Despite knowing they have to migrate, organizations delay "pulling the Band-Aid off" because they know the risk and pain that it involves.
Contrasted with the constraints to migration is an increasingly distributed and mobile workforce demanding scalable and agile deployments of software, including legacy applications. Mobile users expect to have critical business applications on their tablets and other personal computing devices. Satellite offices lack the technology support staff to enable this mobility and rely heavily on web-based applications to perform business functions.
"IT professionals are struggling to bridge the constraints of legacy application support with the need to serve a distributed user base," says Kofod. "The purpose of webify.tsf™ is to create a consistent platform for ISVs and system administrators while offering users reliable, consistent access to important applications via a web browser."
"Configure and publish once" is the objective of webify.tsf™. From information rights management and data theft deterrence, to application authentication and licensing, webify.tsf™ serves as a framework that provides consistent access to legacy applications.
Coming on the heels The Sixth Flag's announcement for Chromebook and Chromebox support, webify.tsf™ becomes an even more attractive solution to ISVs and in-house software developers. Using inexpensive Chrome devices, software publishers can leverage the low maintenance Chrome platform as the means of accessing legacy applications.
This article was originally posted “The Sixth Flag Releases webify.tsf™” from Cloud Strategy Magazine.
