Fragile

We’re in the middle of moving.

When we started the packing process we were diligent and thoughtful. Things were carefully packed and labeled. Everything in each closet or drawer was sorted for things to donate and discard; each box was a deliberately chosen subset of our possessions.

And then we realized we were less than a week from moving day with a significant portion of the house still to be packed.

The packing changed substantially as the deadline loomed. The items in each box were less thematically grouped (unless you count “everything in arm’s reach that fits in this open box” as a theme.) The entire attic is coming with us as is because we just don’t have the time or energy to figure out what’s in those boxes right now. That’s a problem for future us.

All of this was top of mind when I had a call with a vendor discussing the migration of legacy applications. Their presentation offered two paths to modernization; 1) the “lift and shift and then modernize later” route or 2) the “modernize in place and then migrate” route.

And I’m curious how binary those routes are. How many enterprises start with the “modernize in place” plan with the desire to bring only streamlined applications to the cloud, only to get hit in the face with the reality of the deadline? How often do enterprises start with good intentions of cleaning everything up before the big move and end up shoving all the leftovers into proverbial boxes at the end just to make it to moving day?

My guess is that there’s a lot more bleed between those paths than the clean “two routes to modernization” story tells.