Story time: for ten years, a client of ours poured its resources into developing a product. They continuously added new features, improved functionality, and expanded their range. But there was one thing they didn’t do—they never modernized their core technology.
Their entire system was built on outdated frameworks. Every new feature was stacked on top of old foundations. They didn’t see the risk because everything worked. Until one day, it didn’t.
By the time they realized the problem, it was too late for a simple upgrade. Their tech stack was so outdated that they couldn’t migrate to newer versions. The only option was to rebuild everything from scratch. Every feature, every integration, every piece of code had to be rewritten. Years of work had to be discarded. The company was forced to allocate a massive budget just to stay in business.
This situation could have been avoided with regular updates. And this is why we insist on keeping an eye on the end-of-life cycle of your frameworks and libraries.
What Happens When You Ignore End-of-Life Frameworks?
Each library or framework you employ has a life cycle. When a framework hits end-of-life (EOL), the vendor ceases to offer updates, security patches, and support. This implies:
⚠️Greater security threats – No more patches for vulnerabilities.
⚠️Compatibility problems – New tools and integrations fail.
⚠️Increased maintenance expenses – Workarounds become more complicated and costly.
⚠️Eventual failure – At some point, upgrading isn’t an option, and a full rewrite is needed.
Overlooking EOL frameworks is like conducting business on outdated equipment—eventually it will fail, and repair will be overwhelming.
How to Approach End-of-Life Technology
Here is a more positive story of another client of ours, who turned to us for digital transformation.
When we took over the project, the client’s product was functional, their features well thought out, and their architecture designed for scalability. But under the surface, we found a serious issue—much of their tech stack was outdated and approaching end-of-life. If they didn’t act soon, they risked all those things we discussed above.
The core of their backend was running on .NET 3.1, a framework that had already reached end-of-life. Their frontend was built with Angular 12, far behind the current version. Their cloud infrastructure relied on services that Microsoft had scheduled for deprecation by 2025. If they didn’t migrate in time, their entire system would continue working, but there might be dependency issues with third-party integrations. Due to security compliance, these integrations might fail to receive the latest updates. We knew that the best approach was a structured, step-by-step modernization, ensuring minimal disruption to their business.
One of the first things we tackled was automating infrastructure deployment. Instead of manually configuring environments, we used Terraform to define and manage infrastructure as code. This allowed us to streamline deployments, reduce errors, and ensure that everything ran on the latest supported versions.
“We automated 100% of the deployment process with Terraform, making sure every service was running on the most up-to-date, secure version without any manual overhead.” – as our CTO, Andrey Lutskiy put it.
At the same time, we made sure that our updates didn’t disrupt their existing architecture. Rather than redesigning everything from scratch, we focused on aligning new features with the original design, keeping the system structured and maintainable.
“We didn’t change the architecture itself,” Andrey Lutskiy explained, “but every new feature we added had to be well aligned with it. Clean architecture is key—not just for performance, but to make it easy for future developers to step in and navigate the system without a mess.”
Finally, we took a balanced approach to modernization. We didn’t just rush to adopt the latest technologies for the sake of staying trendy. Instead, we focused on upgrading to long-term support (LTS) versions that would provide stability and security for years to come.
“We’re against ignoring modernization, but we’re also against chasing the latest tech just because it’s new,” said Andrey Lutskiy. “Our goal is always to find the silver lining—upgrading at the right pace, in a way that perfectly fits the client’s needs.”
To sum up, we:
- Evaluated the existing system – We assessed risks, dependencies, and technical debt.
- Planned an incremental migration – Instead of a full rewrite, we updated frameworks step by step.
- Automated infrastructure deployment – We ensured everything was deployed on up-to-date versions.
- Maintained security and performance – Each upgrade was aligned with long-term support (LTS) versions for stability.
The result? The entire migration happened over a single weekend without affecting the business.
Check out the full case study to learn more:
See our success stories
Staying Alert: Proactively Managing End-of-Life Technologies
Here’s how you can stay alert and find the right time to move away from expiring technologies:
1. Deploy Continuous Monitoring Systems
Using automated tools can really make it easy to monitor EOL statuses. Tools like Device42 possess features that monitor and alert you about upcoming EOL dates for both hardware and software assets, giving you time to prepare.
2. Stay in Contact with Vendors
Establishing regular communication channels with your software and hardware providers will keep you informed of any upcoming changes, product sunsets, or EOL announcements. Being proactive, you can adjust your asset management plans and make informed decisions on technology upgrades or replacement.
3. Develop a Formatted Asset Retirement Plan
It is critical to create a formal retirement process for EOL assets. It includes data backup, migration, and knowledge transfer as per data protection and privacy regulations so that compliance problems are not encountered during the retirement period. It minimizes disruptions and maintains business continuity during transformation.
4. Use Software Asset Management Tools
In addition, investing in quality SAM tools will also automate EOL asset identification and tracking. Here is a list of top user-rated SAMs in 2025 as per softwarereviews.com:
These Microsoft Products Will Reach End of Support in 2025
If your product is dependent on any of these products, make sure to plan an upgrade before October 14, 2025:
Plan your upgrade now, and don’t wait until the last minute!
Need help? Feel free to reach out.
As a digital transformation agency, we modernize outdated systems and integrate new technologies to help businesses transition from legacy constraints to agile, future-proof systems.
