How To Keep Your Boots Clean During Brownfield Migration

Technology migrates. When we deploy enterprise-level information technology systems, databases, platforms, applications, toolsets, autonomous automation controls and big data analytics (and more), over time we inevitably get to a point where we need to migrate away from previous IT to new versions of software, sometimes from new vendors, but also often from the same incumbent supplier of technology.

This reality means that we need to plough new fields - so-to-speak - and it is this analogy that has given its name to greenfield, brownfield and bluefield technology projects. But what do these terms mean?

Green, brown & blue fields

A greenfield project (and this is a term that’s also used in finance to describe a type of investment) is, as it sounds, completely new i.e. the field is currently covered in grass and we’re going to start from scratch. Greenfield projects might represent a lot of work, but they’re also unencumbered by the need to integrate legacy systems and think about configuration and connectivity to existing sources of information, applications and other technologies. Greenfield development is often regarded as higher-risk work and requires new infrastructure, but they also carry freedom of choice and openness.

In a brownfield project, there’s mud underfoot i.e. it is a deployment on top of existing work. While brownfield technology work has an existing infrastructure of some form or other to build on, it also carries a responsibility to migrate legacy data and IT services and also integrate with those existing entities. Where software application developers have left legacy code in the brownfield IT stack and then left the company, if they have failed to provide documentation and code annotation, these brownfields can prove rather mucky.

A lesser-used term, we also talk about bluefield IT projects. Although green and brown make a sort of murky ‘forest green’, bluefield IT migration is a sort of hybrid of greenfield and brownfield. This means that bluefield preserves a proportion of the structure, shape and value of the existing IT system, but widens the scope of the overall deployment with new services, new applications, new connections and new optimizations. Argued to enable less system downtime, bluefield still has its pros and cons.

When brownfield gets muddy

Farming-based nomenclature and definitions out the way then, what are the issues at hand that need analysis in this space? While greenfield is a fairly open and shut case i.e. it’s a new project, big deal, we have already said that bluefield is a lesser discussed topic. Most of the real issues today surface (along with the worms, presumably) on the brownfield plough surface, so why is this practice so ripe for discussion?

“The real challenges that surface with brownfield IT development are the fact that they come up against a point where there’s a kind of ‘big bang’ switchover, where systems go live simultaneously and legacy systems are deactivated. That’s a big switch to pull and a lot of energy goes down the line,” said David Lees, CTO of UK-based Basis Technologies, a technology company that provides enterprise SAP customers with change management software.

Lees says that when his team starts working with enterprises attempting to plough through the brownfield, they typically find somewhere around three-quarters of firms have not yet carried out the necessary preparations. Around half end up finding that they don’t have right tools and internal skills or resources - and the same proportion are unaware of some of the real issues and problems they will face.’

Top transformation tribulations

“Working with companies looking to migrate SAP systems in respect of SAP S/4HANA deadlines, we find that most businesses struggle with the issue of managing change during landscape buildout (i.e. establishing the new systems needed to run new software) and cutover planning (cutover being the point where data, processes and workflows move from one IT system to another),” explained Lees. “It’s all about realizing that this involves manual dual maintenance of change across different technologies - it’s like trying to drive two cars at once.”

Basis Technologies says it works with organizations to breakdown the components of brownfield migration, that way the ‘boots’ (in this case, the IT operations team, system architects and developers) don’t get so muddy. This involves upgrading existing systems (if required – some can stay in place, but knowing the difference between which and which is the special sauce) and often migrating new workloads, applications and data sources to the cloud.

The team also works to plan, prepare and execute (which can involve writing custom software code to manage the dual maintenance burden) and then run the new environment. This final stage sees the customer using S/4HANA transformation as a catalyst to change the way they approach SAP agility.

When brownfield is good

“Given all we have said so far, it’s important to remember that there are many benefits of brownfield migration if an organization takes the right approach, works with the right team and treads carefully,” advises Lees. “The customer can grasp the benefits of improved compliance derived from working from an existing system. They can enjoy simplified business processes while also accessing new application and data services functionalities that offer a competitive advantage. There’s also the chance to gain real-time reporting and analytics that will power business decisions - and, perhaps most of all, the firm gets to avoid tech obsolescence, something that none of us want to experience if we think back to the supply chain reinvention period experienced during the pandemic.”

Overall, Lees is optimistic on the topic of brownfield migration (well, he would be, his firm works to equip SAP customers with the right change management and software and processes), but in practical terms, he does say that brownfield is an opportunity to harness the current wave of automation correctly.

“The true sign of any successful transformation is when the technical outcomes perfectly align with an organization’s wider business objectives,” said Lees. “A manual, spreadsheet-based approach – currently used by over half of enterprises working on migration projects - is likely to slow an already years-long transition to a crawl. In our experience, automation technology for SAP is key to a smooth SAP S/4HANA transition.”

What next then after greenfield, brownfield and bluefield? We can reasonably expect to experience rainbowfield next. This is the use of multi-hybrid-poly cloud technologies spread across heterogeneous distributed computing environments that features the myriad use of smaller and distinctly differentiated containerization, all of which will be orchestrated and unified into a fully-formed rainbow of functionality.

We joke of course, but perhaps not, check for the pot of gold.