Reduce the Risk of Application Modernization by Retaining Business Logic
Teresa Wingfield
February 13, 2024
While legacy database applications power the business operations of many organizations, they can prevent them from realizing the benefits of digital transformation. Yet organizations settle for the status quo because application modernization can be a long, expensive, and risky journey that can involve replacing thousands of lines of custom-developed business logic. OpenROAD, Actian’s solution for rapid database application development, makes it easy to modernize applications with low risk by retaining your investment in existing business logic. This blog will cover all the details of how this is possible.
What is application business logic?
Before delving into OpenROAD, let’s start with a brief overview of what application business logic is. Application business logic includes the set of rules, processes, and workflows that define how an application operates and how it handles data and user interactions to deliver specific business functionality. It governs how an application processes and validates data, performs calculations, manages workflows, enforces business rules, handles errors and exceptions, and generates outputs. The application business logic also defines how the application is integrated with external systems and security controls to protect data, maintain data integrity, and prevent unauthorized access.
OpenROAD and preservation of business logic
When creating OpenROAD, Actian realized that applications require continuous adaptation and improvement as technology evolves, business requirements change, and new opportunities emerge over time. This is why OpenROAD’s key features and design principles focus so heavily on preserving business logic for application modernization projects as discussed below:
Model-Driven Development
OpenROAD makes it possible for developers to follow a model-driven development approach, allowing them to define the business logic of their applications using high-level models rather than low-level code. This helps to abstract away technical complexities and focus on capturing the essential business rules and processes.
Data Independence
OpenROAD provides a data abstraction layer that decouples the application’s business logic from the underlying database schema. This allows developers to define business rules and logic independently of the database structure, facilitating easier maintenance and future changes to the application.
Component-Based Architecture
OpenROAD applications are built using a component-based architecture that promotes code reuse, simplifies maintenance, and ensures consistency across the application.
Business Logic Encapsulation
Encapsulation separates the implementation details of the business logic from other parts of the application, promoting modularity, maintainability, and reusability. OpenROAD Server is a critical component of the OpenROAD platform, providing the runtime environment and infrastructure needed to deploy and execute OpenROAD applications effectively and allowing developers to encapsulate reusable business logic into modular components.
Integration Capabilities
OpenROAD provides integration capabilities that allow developers to incorporate existing business logic and functionality from other systems or applications. This enables organizations to leverage their existing investments in business logic while modernizing their applications with OpenROAD.
Version Control and Change Management
OpenROAD includes features for version control and change management, allowing developers to track and manage changes to the application’s business logic over time. This helps to preserve the integrity of the business rules and ensure that modifications are properly documented and auditable.
Modernize your OpenROAD applications
Your legacy database applications may be stable, but most may not meet the needs of digital business today. You don’t have to settle for the status quo. OpenROAD preserves business logic to reduce application modernization work. OpenROAD provides a flexible and scalable development platform that supports a model-driven development approach, data independence, a component-based architecture, encapsulation, integration capabilities, and version control. These features help organizations maintain and evolve their business logic effectively while developing and modernizing their applications.
