Our previous post explored how technical debt, combined with a staggering feature backlog (functional debt), can drag on business innovation. However, technical debt also has more critical impacts that can bring a business to its knees. In this second installment of our technical debt series, we’ll dive into another real-world scenario—one that involves outdated infrastructure, unsupported libraries, and a legacy system that became so dysfunctional it nearly crippled a client’s business.
This case showcases what happens when critical business functions rely on an abandoned legacy system – without access to the previous development team. With no immediate solutions (off the shelf or others), companies like these could resort to manual, time-consuming processes and other business continuity measures. However, going manual may be impossible if the company’s lifeblood is the application suite. In one such scenario, Tangonet Solutions stepped in to prevent a catastrophe by modernizing the legacy infrastructure and restoring critical functionality – quickly and in a phased process – to allow the business to restore normal operations.
Scenario 2: Application Orphaned
In this case, the client contacted Tangonet Solutions after their previous development team abandoned them. Their core business application—built on an outdated .NET MVC platform hosted on Azure with a Microsoft SQL Server database—was over 12 years old. The system had been minimally patched over the years, accumulating technical debt, and was never properly documented, supported, or maintained.
Triggering Event
The application’s data import functionality, crucial for onboarding new clients, stopped working due to outdated libraries no longer being supported. Existing clients began experiencing issues with the functionality they depended on. With no modern alternative and a manual input process that was too time-consuming to be practical, the business was at risk of falling apart.
Since the data consisted of high-volume text and video, fixing the issue required more than just a patch. Manual input was an option, but was incredibly time-consuming and impractical for day-to-day operations.
At the same time, clients were growing frustrated with the functionality drain—directly related to technical debt. The situation had escalated to the point where the business was losing credibility with customers, who were beginning to look for alternatives. We asked to interview one client to better understand how they used the application and faced her frustration directly and in no uncertain terms. In that case, they were only using a small subset of functionality due to the problems in other application modules, rendering it practically impossible to use.
Tangonet’s Approach: A Phased Modernization Strategy
Due to the urgency of the situation, Tangonet Solutions proposed a phased approach:
- Comprehensive Discovery – We began by conducting a full audit of the system—analyzing application components, database structures, and cloud infrastructure to determine the depth of technical debt. The investigation revealed that several Azure services were either deprecated or would soon be retired, adding to the urgency.
- High-Level Recommendations – Our team recommended a complete overhaul of the platform, including:
– Rebuilding the system using modern frameworks and updated libraries.
– Transitioning from a multi-database schema to a more straightforward single-database system.
– Re-platforming the cloud infrastructure as several Azure services were near (or past) their end-of-life support.
However, because our client urgently needed to onboard new clients and resolve issues with existing ones, we suggested a Phase 0 solution to address the most critical functionality first: the data importer. - Phase 0: Rebuilding the Data Importer – We rebuilt the data importer as an independent module rather than risk integrating new components into a crumbling system. This isolated it from the legacy platform, preventing additional technical debt from accumulating. The following summarizes the results:
– Restored the critical functionality of the application in a much shorter time frame than waiting for the complete rebuild.
– Enabled client onboarding without the need for manual data input, thereby resolving the most urgent commercial issue.
– Designed future compatibility – by developing the new importer so it could later be integrated seamlessly into the fully rebuilt application. - SQL Server Data-Level Integration – To maintain the system’s core functionality during the transition, all interactions between the legacy system and the new data importer were kept at the SQL Server database level. This allowed us to bypass backward compatibility issues while keeping critical operations running, allowing only interaction with old and new components at the data level.
The Outcome: Restoring Business Continuity
By the end of Phase 0, our client could onboard new clients efficiently without manual input. The improved data importer became a cornerstone of their plans to modernize their system entirely. The phased approach allowed us to solve immediate business needs while laying the groundwork for a larger-scale overhaul of their platform.
This strategy restored core functionality quickly and effectively. It reduced risk by minimizing interaction with outdated components, ensuring that the company could continue operating without the dangers due to compatibility issues.
Lessons Learned: Timing and Phased Solutions
Every system has a lifecycle, and every business application has its unique biography—shaped by decisions made to meet immediate needs and market demands. However, without proper documentation and updates, systems can become a “house of cards,” vulnerable to collapse at any moment.
The key takeaway from this case is that managing technical debt is as much about timing and prioritization as it is about the technical solution. In this instance, Tangonet Solutions was able to balance critical business requirements with the need for a comprehensive long-term solution.
Is your business reliant on a legacy system?
Don’t let your critical infrastructure reach a breaking point. Schedule a call with Tangonet Solutions today to discuss how we can help modernize your legacy systems and ensure your business is prepared for the future.
