Back in 2007 (13 years already!), before the final bloom of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, Microsoft presented a different way of building web applications. Set to compete with Flash, Silverlight was a subset of Microsoft's desktop technology, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). As a technology subset, Silverlight allowed reusing all the (relatively new) WPF development capabilities companies had to create Rich Internet Applications that could run in a web browser, after downloading and install a flash-like browser extension. Multiple companies chose this technology, as it was relatively simple to create 2013-nice-looking web business apps. Even the first versions of "Windows Azure" used Silverlight for certain advanced functionalities.
Coming back to 2020, however, the landscape is very different: Nowadays, companies rely on pure web technologies to create rich user experiences without the need to download and install any extension. Even these technologies are been used to create desktop and mobile applications by leveraging wrappers like Electron and Ionic. In this sense, is rather difficult to find a company that don't use web technologies for their front-ends. Also, more and more companies are choosing low-code solutions like Outsystems, which in the end relies on the same 2020 front web stack that any company would choose.
Finally, if we look forward, more precisely to October 12th 2021, Silverlight will reach the end of support. Not only this, but currently it only operates with either Internet Explorer 10 and 11, been IE10 support dropped by end of this year, leaving little room to execute Silverlight apps in a safe way. Needless to say is that unsupported technologies represents one of the biggest security threats for any company, as any detected flaw will probably never fixed by the vendor.In this scenario, if your company have a Silverlight application, it is the perfect moment to start thinking about its migration to a 2020 technology stack. At NTT DATA, we can help you to:
- Understand the application features, architecture and business complexity
- Assess and identify the right target architecture
- Design and execute an application upgrade plan
No matter it is a small departmental application or a business-critical massive system, our expert team can find a solution to your problem. If you want to know more, feel free to get in touch.