24th September 2024
Future Proofing our Business
Recently I published an article here exploring the challenges businesses face when dealing with legacy systems. My business Reuben Digital faces similar technological hurdles and must focus on driving its own tech transformations to support our mission of delivering the best digital solutions to our customers.
Today, I delve into a little background around the evolution of our web tech, and some of the challenges we overcome, to ensure the continuous evolution of our technology stack choice that shapes our offerings and keeps my business at the leading edge of technological progress.
Where it Started
My business's tech journey began in the year 2000 when we were creating simple static HTML websites, which provided the basic structure for an online presence. As the internet evolved, and web development demands grew, there was the need to be able to develop and deploy more complex, transactional solutions. To enable this, I need to look towards building a team of developers, not designers, and as such I led the transition of our offering into what was called dynamic websites, first through Microsoft’s ASP Classic, then onto .NET Forms. And now, in more recent times, by embracing the very latest in technology including, Microsoft’s ASP.NET Core and Blazor tech stack.
These frameworks offered a more modern, efficient, and flexible approach to development, pushing us into more innovative thinking, and improving the products we could provide our customers. Each transformation posed a number of challenges requiring a complete rethink and overhaul of our software engineering processes, from the ground up. “New Skills, New Languages, New Structure, Improved Logic.”
I was not just making my business replace old technology for the sake of it. I ensured that we retained much of our award-winning IP, Logic and the business process automation that worked, but dropped those that didn’t, and also refined and improved where we could, to ensure that our clients were and are getting what they need.
The Decision to Evolve
In more recent times, well, 3 years ago, I made a tough economic but important strategic decision. I decided that all future implementations we were offering our customers had to be engineered on a newer technology stack, with no exceptions. Our heritage products, whilst serving and still serving our clients and us well, were no longer to be deployed. Eek!
This bold move wasn’t just about keeping up with trends, it was about building a future-proof foundation for growth. But I also knew that it would not be an easy transition, as we would need to invest in our future and fundamentally redevelop all our core offerings.
It was time to practice what I preached and follow the key considerations that I advise clients when addressing the thorny subject of Legacy Systems including:
- Define Legacy
- Assess Business Impacts
- Understand Technical Implications
- Count the Costs and Risks
- Craft a Strategic Migration Roadmap
- Align with Business Goals
- Understanding Resource/Skills Requirements
- Think Sustainability and Net Zero
Regarding sustainability, we’re excited to introduce our first truly low-carbon website. Our new Corporate Social Responsibility Policy website https://csr.reubendigital.co.uk has been developed on our latest technology stack, utilising cutting-edge sustainable web design principles.
We are proud to announce that this site has achieved an impressive carbon rating of A (on a scale from A+ to F, where A+ is the greenest), as verified by Website Carbon. This means it is cleaner than 84% of websites globally, emitting just 0.23g of CO2 per page view.
We’re now applying these eco-friendly coding and design practices to our clients’ web development projects. If you’re an existing client, now is the perfect time to ask us for a ‘greening’ health check to help lower your website’s emissions.
Balancing Legacy Support with New Growth
While we've embraced the future, we acknowledge the importance of legacy systems. For example, many of our clients still have software built on older platforms. Even though Microsoft continues to provide support, we understand that updating these systems is crucial to ensuring continued success and security.
We have been fortunate enough to work with some very forward-thinking clients that 100% recognise the need for continuous investment and technological evolution, and have supported my business journey knowing that we are serving their best interests.
It's a complicated and sometimes paradoxical topic, but I hope sharing some of these insights will help you realise you are not along, even tech businesses face the same tech issues!
LinkedIn Post

Ray Stephens
Passionate about internet technologies and innovation, Ray established his first internet services business in 1999 offering high-end expertise to charities and SMEs. His primary role at Reuben is to share his vision and knowledge of the internet and technology, helping clients create sustainable websites and digital business strategies.
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