Series 24 · 8 Parts· 1h 27m

Non-SaaS Product & License Modernization

How an ISV modernizes an installed or licensed product — one aging codebase shipped across many customer environments — slice by slice: service tier, web front end, multi-tenancy, and subscription delivery, without a big-bang release.

Start reading · Part 1

Contents

01 Modernizing Packaged & On-Prem Software Products 10 min read An independent software vendor ships one aging codebase into dozens or hundreds of customer environments at once. Why that makes modernization a different problem from SaaS — and why you can't freeze, can't break a customer mid-contract, and can't do a big-bang release.
02 Modernizing Client-Server Architecture 11 min read Most installed software products are built on a thick client talking to a database — the client-server architecture that powered a generation of packaged software. The signs it has hit its ceiling, why a rewrite is the wrong response, and how to modernize the architecture slice by slice.
03 Modernizing a Licensed Software Product 12 min read The full slice-by-slice method for modernizing a product that ships to customers — carving the codebase into slices, sealing each behind a stable interface, proving parity against the environment spread, and releasing it as an ordinary update, so the product never breaks in the field.
04 Desktop-to-Web Application Migration 11 min read Moving a thick desktop client to a web front end is the transition ISVs most often need and most often turn into a doomed rewrite. How to do it incrementally — building the web UI on a service tier extracted slice by slice — so the desktop product keeps working while the web one grows up beside it.
05 Multi-Tenant Migration for ISVs 11 min read Moving from a separate single-tenant install per customer to one multi-tenant deployment that serves them all is the backend shift behind cloud and SaaS delivery. The tenancy models, the data-isolation problem, and how to migrate customers onto shared infrastructure slice by slice without breaking anyone's install.
06 From Perpetual License to SaaS Delivery 11 min read Modernizing how a product is licensed and delivered — from a one-time perpetual license with annual maintenance to a subscription — is as much a commercial change as a technical one. The packaging shifts it requires, and how to migrate existing customers onto a new model without breaking the contracts they're already under.
07 ISV Modernization Cost & ROI 11 min read What modernizing a packaged software product costs, and how the return is different for an ISV than for any other kind of company — because modernization shrinks the version-sprawl support bill, opens up recurring revenue, and raises the valuation of the product that is the whole business.
08 Product Modernization in Practice 10 min read What modernizing a shipping software product actually looks like, end to end — discovery, the first slices, the order the transitions usually come in, and how the product stays live in every customer environment throughout. An honest anatomy of an engagement, and where the conversation starts.