As a Senior Manager of Technology Research at Rimini Street, there’s a lot of dynamic problem solving in what my team and I do. For over 15 years, I’ve been working on client issues like application compatibility, focused on helping organizations navigate the challenges of evolving IT ecosystems. One of the many examples of this work involved a client operating on Windows Server 2003, using an Oracle-based system.
The client switched from vendor support to us to support their Oracle systems and wanted to modernize its infrastructure by transitioning to Windows Server 2019 and migrating its database from Oracle to SQL Server. With Rimini Connect™, our suite of interoperability solutions built with proprietary methodologies and tools, the client was able to:
- Transition the application from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2019
- Migrate the database from Oracle to a supported version of SQL Server
- Ensure the application ran seamlessly on the updated infrastructure
This was a project with many team members involved from both sides and lots of moving parts, but we executed fast and flawlessly.
Under vendor support, this would not have been covered, but now the client has a system that’s supported, secure, and future-proofed against the next OS system update.
Watch the full story of how we approached and solved the problem:
Searching under the hood to solve application interoperability issues
The Rimini Connect suite of solutions uphold the principle that when external forces change, mission-critical application shouldn’t shoulder the burden and risk to meet the change, but rather, we can change what’s around it to make it work with modern systems.
At Rimini Street, we look at things in a completely different way: You have this application with all the features you want, and how do you make new things work with that? Which interfaces are breaking? What kinds of network or application interfaces exist? Is there an API that we need to make it work in the newer operating system? To answer those questions, we have to really dig in and do a detailed analysis of the applications and how they behave.
Ultimately, all these applications behave similarly, whether it’s SAP, EBS, or other ERP. They all run on an operating system. They all load DLLs. They all make network calls to different services. And when we analyze any of these applications, we end up analyzing them with the same layered approach. We delve into developer tools, identify issues, and provide solutions that are often simpler than anticipated.
Watching the client’s ‘aha’ moment is always rewarding. And often, the solution isn’t that complex, but it couldn’t be resolved without looking under the hood to see what’s really happening. For me, that’s the fun part of the job, going through that process and showing clients the simplicity of what’s right there under the hood. Clients are often amazed at the depth of technical analysis that we perform to uncover previously unseen issues and equip them with actionable solutions going forward. This approach both builds trust with clients and highlights the differentiated expertise of the Rimini Connect team to perform true debugging to find solutions for clients.
As IT ecosystems grow increasingly complex, Rimini Connect solutions continue to empower businesses to modernize without compromising the stability of their existing systems. And that is why I truly love what I do.
The Rimini Connect philosophy
At its core, the Rimini Connect approach is about creating harmony between existing applications and modern environments. Traditionally, the enterprise application space is about receiving a bundle of patches from the vendor as they are made available, finding the right one out of the pile, and using additional resources, whether internal or external, to apply them.
At Rimini Street, it’s not about finding and applying patches but about solving the underlying compatibility issues so everything works as intended. This method enables businesses to minimize disruption and mitigate risk while adapting to new technologies. Our philosophy not only reduces risk for clients but also saves significant time and cost for enterprises by avoiding large-scale application overhauls to solve minor compatibility issues.
Facing application modernization challenges or application compatibility issues? Explore the Rimini Connect suite for browsers, OS, Java, email, and other solutions designed to help you unlock the full potential of your existing systems while taking advantage of the emerging tech landscape.
