The discussion around keeping important legacy software systems up and running for the long term sometimes centers on the concept of third-party maintenance, where major upgrades are pushed off but important tax updates and bug fixes keep getting applied.
A startup called Sapho provides a different approach to juicing more value from such systems with a platform for building "micro apps" that tap into legacy data and processes and surface them on more modern, user-friendly screens.
Sapho offers a sizable set of pre-built connectors to data sources ranging from enterprise applications to data warehouses and databases. It also has ready-made micro apps for common scenarios that can be tweaked to an individual company's needs. Sapho's architecture includes Sapho Server, which can run on-premises or on Amazon Web Services, Azure and Google Cloud Platform; Sapho Builder, a rapid application development toolkit; and Sapho App, which micro-apps reside within.
Apart from legacy modernization, Sapho positions itself for a number of other use cases, such as for pushing proactive BI (business intelligence) to employees from various systems, and as a means to centralize notifications from a number of different enterprise apps in a single place.
This week, however, the company made an announcement centered on legacy systems, announcing plans to integrate Sapho with IBM's venerable Domino server back-end for Lotus Notes:
Making Sapho accessible to IBM Domino customers allows IT to build micro apps that interact with IBM Domino databases that contain large quantities of enterprise data and business logic. Sapho’s micro apps sit on top of IBM Domino’s existing applications, monitor for changes, and surface them to employees so they can complete simple tasks like approvals and database queries.
“Email and workflow applications must be relevant and designed for today’s user in order to improve their efficiency,” said Peter Yared, CTO and co-founder of Sapho. “With Sapho and IBM Domino, IT is able to deliver micro apps based on IBM Domino data that contain modern interfaces and exceed employee expectations without costly upgrades.”
Sapho is far from the only legacy modernization tool out there, of course, considering the long track record of companies such as Micro Focus and Pegasystems. Where Sapho offers a twist is on the bite-size, consumer-friendly micro-app model. The risks involved with it are the usual ones with startups, namely continued funding and the ability to grow a viable partner and developer community.
Overall, Sapho reflects some hard truths for enterprise IT as they move toward adopting next-generation applications.
"A working app is very valuable," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "There is a market to keep them running... often enteprises don't have the budget, skills, stamina to rebuild them, so they even pay a premium to keep them running. It's always good to know vendors that help you keep the lights on."
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