Picking up workloads and dropping them into a new environment is rarely enough. Many organisations complete migrations only to find that costs remain high, systems remain inflexible, and innovation still moves too slowly. That is where the 7 Rs of Modernisation come in, originally introduced as the 5 Rs by Gartner in 2010 and subsequently expanded by AWS and the broader cloud ecosystem.
Of all seven, Replatform occupies perhaps the most strategically interesting position. As NetApp describes it, replatforming increases the flexibility, agility, and resilience of workloads while enabling cloud-native capabilities such as automation, and it does so without significant code changes.
According to PwC’s 2025 Africa Cloud Business Survey, while cloud adoption across Africa has accelerated dramatically, with over 50% of companies having adopted cloud in all or most of their operations, only 33% have modernised their data architecture to support cloud analytics. Many organisations have moved workloads to the cloud without unlocking the deeper value that cloud was designed to deliver.
South African enterprises face a modernisation landscape that is both compelling and complicated. On one hand, the pressure to transform is acute, from load-shedding-driven infrastructure resilience requirements, to the digital expectations of a rapidly growing urban consumer base, to competitive disruption from digital-native entrants. On the other, legacy systems run deep, skills availability is constrained, and capital is not unlimited.
Why Replatforming Makes Financial Sense
The financial case for modernisation and Replatforming in particular is increasingly hard to ignore. According to analysis from Digital Bank Expert, referencing a Deloitte Banking Survey (2024), financial institutions consistently underestimate the true total cost of ownership of legacy systems by 70 to 80%, with the average bank discovering their actual IT costs are 3.4 times higher than initially budgeted when all factors are considered.
For South Africa’s banking sector specifically, which EY, notes is facing cost growth outpacing revenue growth and rising technology and compliance costs, these numbers are not abstract. The number of digitally active banking clients in South Africa reached 21 million by the end of 2024, approaching a third of the population.
Replatforming is not a universal answer. It is the right strategy when the application has long-term business value, when the core architecture does not fundamentally need to change, and when the organisation wants to capture cloud benefits without taking on the risk and cost of a refactor.
At Developmenthub, we help organisations modernise with confidence by identifying the most effective migration pathway aligned with business goals, budgets, and operational realities. Contact us today to learn more about our services.