Cloud native is the software approach of building, deploying, and managing modern applications in cloud computing environments.
Technical definition as provided by Amazon Web Services
“Lift and shift,” also known as “rehosting,” is the process of migrating an exact copy of an application or workload, together with its data store and operating system (OS), from IT one environment to another—usually from on-premises to public or private cloud.
Technical definition as provided by IBM
In 2017, Gain began offering the first Cloud-native solution for drafting, reviewing and filing statutory financial statements to be certified by the NAIC.
Our competition – a half-dozen vendors dating back to 2001 and before – exclusively offered on-premise solutions; their software was installed on users’ computers and updated via an ongoing series of ‘patches’ to their existing code base.
Even as the cloud revolution swept across the software industry, delivering on promises of scalability, cost-efficiency, and accessibility, these legacy vendors resisted embracing the new technology for cost reasons.
Or at least this was the case until very recently.
Our largest competitor has embarked on a journey to port its legacy product to a modern hosting environment.
This journey – known either as “lift and shift” or “rehosting” – is fraught with challenges. Traditional on-premise software is often a complex ecosystem of dependencies among underlying hardware, operating systems, and other applications. Maintaining that ecosystem is often untenable in a cloud environment, and significant changes to code are required.
It’s safe to assume that, as with any monumental software rollout, this legacy annual statement package will struggle; the challenges will manifest themselves, especially in the first use of the software under load (i.e., Annual Statement filing season), in performance, reliability, and consistency.
In vivid contrast, Gain enters our fifth annual statement filing cycle with a Cloud-native software solution that is proven, performant, and stable, and users enjoy a first-class experience.
To date, Gain has competed against legacy software which, while unimaginative and lacking in features, at least had years of use and in-field testing under its belt. While the user experience wasn’t great, at least it was predictable.
With the rehosting challenges our competition faces, even this is now in jeopardy.
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