Legacy Gravity

Every Digital Transformation pitch deck starts with "We will migrate off the monolith." Five years and $50M later, the monolith is still there, but now it has a REST API wrapper.

The Physics of Code

The more data a system holds, the more gravity it exerts.

• Data Gravity: Applications move to where the data is. You can't put a microservice in Cloud Provider if the customer record is in a DB2 on-prem.
• Risk Gravity: The system that processes revenue is the system nobody wants to touch.

The Strangler Fig Pattern Failures

Martin Fowler's "Strangler Fig" pattern (slowly replacing pieces) is the correct theory. In practice, it fails because:

1. Dual Maintenance: You have to support both systems for years.
2. Feature Parity Chase: The legacy system keeps getting new features (regulatory/business critical), so the new system never catches up.

[!WARNING] Do not start a transformation unless you are willing to Stop All Feature Work on the legacy system. Most executives are not brave enough to do this.