Code Refactoring: The Cost to Rearchitect Your Codebase

Eventually, all software reaches End-of-Life (EOL). Once that happens, there are a few solutions. Often, the really helpful solution is to refactor your code. But code refactoring will not be an easy process you possibly can complete in a matter of hours. 

So, is it one of the best solution? That’s what this guide will answer. 

We’ll explain when code refactoring techniques are really helpful. We’ll discuss the advantages and downsides of code refactoring. And we’ll talk concerning the time and price involved within the strategy of refactoring your code, regardless of the programming languages used, from Java to JavaScript. 

We’ll also take a look at a substitute for code refactoring when software reaches EOL. 

There are typically two scenarios when software refactoring is required. 

The primary is when there are problems within the code itself. These problems typically involve poorly written, repetitive, or sloppy code that’s hard to read. Sloppy code also often leads to performance issues. In case your software has these issues, code refactoring or rewriting are the one solutions.

The second scenario where code refactoring is really helpful is in cases of EOL software. There may be nothing mistaken with the code itself, but because EOL is near, several risks are related to it. 

• Security Vulnerabilities: Running an outdated software system presents a better goal for hackers.
• Documentation: Critical and non-critical vulnerabilities are documented and are, due to this fact, easy to access within the wild.
• Compliance Issues: These arise from the outdated software’s security vulnerabilities.
• Performance Problems: Outdated software also means you don’t have access to the most recent features, which brings about performance issues. For instance, in case your software is built on Windows Server 2008, you’re missing out on a variety of improved performance and safety features introduced in later iterations of Windows Server.

The risks listed above aren’t any laughing matter. They should be mitigated. 

Nonetheless, code refactoring will not be the one solution on this scenario. There may be an alternate we’ll explain later within the article. For now, let’s take a look at the advantages and downsides of code refactoring. 

There are several advantages related to code refactoring. They’re the next:

The fundamental definition of code refactoring also explains the most important advantage it represents. Code refactoring is the strategy of simplifying your code, making it clearer, without changing its external behavior. 

If you make code changes like these, it becomes easier to seek out typos or internal structure issues. It also becomes easier to discover bugs and duplication in your code. Consequently, higher readability of your code leads to higher efficiency across the board corresponding to:

• Spending less time debugging or trying to grasp the code.
• With the ability to deal with other tasks.
• Having more time for adding recent features.

Code refactoring means that you can implement a coding standards manual or a mode guide. A mode guide makes it easier to onboard a brand new development team and programmers and get them on top of things along with your inline code. 

As we mentioned earlier, poorly-written code results in performance issues — not to say it’ll decelerate any software engineering efforts. 

Furthermore, in case your app or software is slow, users will get annoyed and stop using it, resulting in increased customer churn. Code refactoring can go a good distance towards eliminating bloat, bugs, and other problems.

Lastly, for the reason that code refactoring process leads to higher performance and takes advantage of recent features, it means that you can move your app into the trendy cloud. That makes it easier to compete with cloud-native apps. 

Code refactoring can provide your users with on-par performance, feature availability, and improved security like other apps inbuilt the cloud.

Unquestionably, code refactoring offers significant benefits. However it also has two major disadvantages it’s essential consider before embarking on such a task. 

For starters, code refactoring and restructuring are time-consuming. It’s not a project you possibly can complete in a single afternoon. Depending on the dimensions and complexity of your app, code refactoring can take months to finish. 

Not only do you’ve gotten to rewrite the design of existing code completely, but you furthermore mght must account for the time spent testing the rewritten code and performing debugging protocols on account of the refactoring. 

Code refactoring can be expensive. Since code refactoring is time-consuming, you’ll must compensate developers for the time spent working on the method in addition to the fee of refactoring tools. In some cases, you may even must pay for additional time or hire additional developers to hurry up the optimization project. Code refactoring also means you may have to speculate in recent technologies or cloud integrations. 

Essentially, code refactoring takes away the funds you may use on recent software development features, recent design decisions, or core business objectives.

Financially, the simplest strategy to calculate the fee of refactoring source code is to multiply the variety of hours by the hourly price and the variety of developers working on the project. 

But there’s more to it. You furthermore may have to think about how much it can cost you to proceed maintaining the code in its current state in comparison with the fee of maintaining the refactored code. 

As we mentioned before, you’ll also must contemplate whether you’ve gotten to speculate in additional technologies before you possibly can refactor your code. 

• Are there any integrations or APIs you may potentially use to implement recent features or improve performance? 
• Will it’s essential upgrade or perform a traditional Windows application migration to a brand new hosting plan for the refactored code? 
• Will the brand new hosting require additional team members to enable you to maintain the server so you possibly can deal with your app and business?

Finally, take stock of another projects you’ve gotten within the pipeline and consider if any of them should be placed on hold. In other words, will those projects stop getting cash when you’re cleansing up and refactoring code?

As you possibly can see, code refactoring may be expensive. There are a variety of aspects that contribute to the general cost. Not to say, it’s a time-consuming task that may derail your entire company timeline. 

But there’s an alternate, and it only requires small steps to implement. 

As a substitute of refactoring your code, consider migrating the software you’re using to a non-public cloud environment corresponding to Liquid Web’s Private Cloud. 

That offers you extra security layers without refactoring your codebase or leaving you vulnerable to security and compliance risks.  

Our Private Cloud is powered by the leader in cloud infrastructure, VMware. 

Besides gaining access to dedicated architectures, several advantages of using our Private Cloud to your independent development environment (IDE) include: 

• Scalability and Extensibility: You’ll be able to buy only the resources you wish and upgrade as your needs evolve.
• Ease of Use: A completely managed solution means we deal with your entire hosting infrastructure, not only the hardware however the cloud platform itself, leaving you loads of time to deal with your apps.
• 24/7/365 Support:Windows, Red Hat, and Linux certified technicians reply to your support requests in 59 seconds or less.

In other words, Liquid Web’s Private Cloud gives you cloud performance on fast, secure enterprise infrastructure with predictable pricing and no must refactor your code.

Refactoring legacy code is usually really helpful when software is poorly written or when it approaches EOL. 

While there’s no avoiding code refactoring within the case of poorly-written code, there’s a significantly better solution in relation to coping with EOL. 

Migrate your app to a non-public cloud environment to learn from improved performance and mitigate security and compliance issues without losing precious time and incurring high costs — and also you’ll still walk away with clean code ultimately.