Did you know Chrome and Microsoft Edge don’t support Java, ActiveX controls, toolbars, VBScript and other common legacy apps used on many business websites? So what’s an enterprise to do? Start considering custom app development.
What Happens to Legacy Apps After a Cloud Migration?
Most end-user productivity tasks are performed in browsers with on-premise or cloud-based web applications. When you migrate to Chrome OS or Windows 10, you might assume these apps and components will continue to be compatible post-migration. More often than not, that’s not the case.
Compatibility issues with a business-critical application can thwart a migration. And, web application downtime also can directly impact your organization’s bottom line. It’s not worth the risk.
Nor is performing CPR on your old Microsoft Internet Explorer browser hoping to keep your organization’s Java and ActiveX web applications alive just as they are.
Sure, those legacy apps work in Internet Explorer, but surfing in IE is slow, and its browser add-on framework is clunky. In fact, Microsoft is intent on phasing out this outdated technology.
The last version of Internet Explorer, IE 11, launched in 2013. And, according to the Microsoft website, as of Jan. 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates. Microsoft indicates IE 11 support on current Windows versions will continue until October 2025.
Stop holding on to the past; look toward a brighter future and modern browsing experience with Windows 10 or Google Chrome, Onix’s preferred platform. This is possible by using custom app development to assist with your web applications.
By taking these three steps and using custom app development, you can make your new life in Chrome or Windows 10 a success.
Assess Your Current Web Application Inventory
Before any migration and custom application development efforts, you’ll need to inventory the resources and workloads you will be transitioning to your target platform, whether that’s Chrome OS or Windows 10.
During this inventory, you’ll need to determine...
- The most critical web applications to undergo pre-migration testing
- The web applications requiring a legacy browser to operate within the new platform
- If there are any add-on interdependencies that will break a critical application if one is removed
- What software licenses you need so you can explore cost-saving volume licensing programs
- How you will handle hardware and cloud storage to avoid wasting resources.
You can streamline this analysis by installing a web application telemetry toolkit on employee PCs across your enterprise. It can run on-premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid configuration. The tool allows us to build a necessary inventory with comprehensive usage statistics for all of your legacy web applications.
Invisible to all end users, the telemetry toolkit monitors all navigation in each browser. It detects, collects and reports all browsing activity across the enterprise, pushing critical information to a graphical dashboard. You’ll also get detailed reports on all organization-wide on-premise and cloud activity
This readily available information will help you target the web applications that should be tested for Edge or Chrome readiness and if they will need custom app development to be useful post-migration. It also provides insight into their priority through metrics focusing on the number of unique users — and how frequently they use each application.
Remediate Incompatibilities with Custom App Development
Once you understand your web application inventory’s challenges, you’ll need to control your browser environment to ensure compatibility for all browser-based applications. You can do this by...
- Remediating incompatible applications
- Routing traffic between multiple browsers
- Pairing applications with the most compatible browser
- Managing Java
- Removing unnecessary software.
Telemetry tools simplify this. You’ll be able to enable legacy IE-dependent applications to run in the still-supported IE11 browser without needing to rewrite or virtualize. You also can control which web apps will open in IE11 — and which will run in Chrome or Edge.
When it comes to Java apps, you’ll be able to manage versions for each application and isolate vulnerable versions to ensure compatibility. You can also run multiple versions side-by-side on a single system and standardize upon the latest secure release. This can reduce your attack surface.
Monitor Your Applications After the Migration
Post-migration, you’ll want to make sure your user environment is robust and efficient. You can do this by identifying and resolving web application issues and challenges...
- Compatibility issues through detailed telemetry of web applications, components and interdependencies
- Performance challenges by fine-tuning user-endpoint data collected, including historical performance, so you can gain deeper app performance insights.
Thanks to new technology, planning for, building and deploying custom apps in an OS migration doesn’t have to be a challenging process.
Whether you use Windows 10 and its Edge browser or Chrome as your new modern standard, you’ll find solutions to help you understand your web application inventory and which applications will and won’t work.
And you’ll get the web-based reporting analytics you need to monitor and interact with this data so you can target your custom app development in the cloud for the best solutions.
