ODC Migration Highlights from the ONE Conference: No one is left behind.

OutSystems continues to evolve, adapting to the needs of today’s digital landscape. From Traditional to Reactive development in OutSystems 11 (O11), the platform now moves forward with the OutSystems Developer Cloud (ODC). This latest advancement brings powerful AI integrations, enhanced security features, and tools to streamline business processes.

During the October 2024 OutSystems NextStep Experience (ONE) conference, a key focus was the migration from existing platforms to ODC. During a presentation at ONE, it was told that currently about 90% of OutSystems applications are built in O11. The support of O11 is extended until 2029.

The transition to ODC is inevitable, the main question is when to migrate. OutSystems provides a Migration Toolkit that will evolve in capabilities, nevertheless preparation is crucial.

Migration Kit

The Migration Kit is designed to facilitate a smooth transition. At this moment, it contains a limited set of features, however it will grow to fulfill all migration needs.

The kit comprises three tools: the Migration Assessment tool, the Migration Console for Code and the Data Migration. As more organizations start their migration efforts, OutSystems will improve and expand the kit based on practical experiences and evolving needs.

No one is left behind

OutSystems emphasizes that no organization will be left behind in this migration process.

As of today, the migration path is limited to a “One Shot” migration for Reactive modules hosted on a cloud environment with a SQL Server database and fewer than 300 application objects. This type of migration moves all applications and modules in an O11 environment simultaneously, including sandbox apps. While data migration isn’t yet available, future updates will address this gap.

For the organisations whose needs fall outside current capabilities, self-managed migration is possible. However, leveraging OutSystems’ expertise and the Migration Kit is recommended when it becomes fully available.

Traditional vs. Reactive

There are still users of the Traditional Environment. Migrating from Traditional O11 environments presents its own set of challenges. As the current Migration Kit only supports Reactive O11 environments, OutSystems is developing a tool to help transition from Traditional to Reactive. In this scenario, only the End User Layer modules will change, while the Core Layer remains intact. Once migrated to Reactive, applications can then utilize the Migration Kit to move to ODC.

It’s worth relying on OutSystems’ tools for migrating Traditional applications to avoid unnecessary complexity and effort.

ODC Coexistence

For the foreseeable future, many organizations will operate with both ODC and O11 platforms. Developing new applications directly in ODC makes sense, as it avoids the need for future conversion, and it allows developers to gain hands-on experience with the new platform.

When the Migration Kit is available for your organization, it’s advisable to run it on your existing applications to see the recommendations.

While Business Process Technology (BPT) isn’t supported yet, future updates will introduce this functionality. There’s no need to eliminate BPT from your applications, as it will be usable soon. In the meantime, applying the Smart ODC Migration Approach will help prepare your applications for future migration.

The way forward

Upcoming improvements to the Migration Kit include:

• Data migration capabilities
• Progressive source-code Migration, allowing for individual app migration
• Code migration for simple BPT scenarios
• Migration from Traditional O11 to Reactive O11

Following these updates, OutSystems will address more complex situations, such as:

• Self-managed and hybrid installations
• Oracle database migrations
• Complex BPT process migrations
• Complex Traditional O11 to Reactive O11 migrations
• Multi-tenant environments

Over time, the Migration Kit will also support more sophisticated scenarios, ensuring more reliable and comprehensive migration outcomes.

Next Steps

As a tech lead and developer, it’s tempting to jump straight into migrating the applications you’re working on today. However, it’s smarter to plan based on the current capabilities of ODC. To determine the right timing approach for migration, we recommend the Smart ODC Migration Approach, which will guide you on the optimal timing and preparation steps for your migration.