Analysis of software migration from a sustainability perspective : an exploratory case study of Elisa Viihde

Abstract

Software migration is a complex, multidimensional, and socio-technical process with multiple positive and negative implications for the environment and economy. Many software companies fail to reach their satisfaction levels even after achieving their desired migration goals due to a lack of proper analysis and planning of when, how, and what should be done. An exploratory case study is done to analyze the undergoing migration process of a streaming service (Elisa Viihde) from a legacy system to a public cloud platform in order to capture its impacts on environmental, individual, technical, and economic dimensions of sustainability. Data is collected from deep interviews, observations made through participation in tools and technologies, questionnaires, and product documentation analysis. In-depth analysis revealed that the most impacted dimension of sustainability is the economic. To capture all the sustainability impacts, both qualitative and quantitative KPIs were identified during this research. The biggest hurdles for software migrations are: change resistance, a lack of scalable architecture, the reluctance of stakeholders to reinvest in the latest technologies, the unavailability of dedicated migration teams, and a lack of the required skills and expertise for migration. In the end, it is identified that a smooth migration can be done with the help of the thirteen sustainable practices given as an output of this research to enable a Sustainable Software Migration Life Cycle (SuSMLC).