International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Sambasiva Rao Madamanchi
Abstract: The transformation of enterprise IT infrastructure is a journey that has been unfolding for decades, and one of the most radical steps organizations now face is the migration from legacy Unix systems such as Solaris to cloud-native platforms like Kubernetes running on Linux. Solaris, once a leader in enterprise-class Unix deployments, served as the backbone of critical applications with unmatched reliability and robustness. However, with declining vendor support, the rise of modern orchestration platforms, and the need for dynamic scaling, containerization has become both a necessity and an opportunity for organizations wanting to remain relevant in the digital age. Kubernetes on Linux offers a future-proof operating model, driven by containers that encapsulate workloads into lightweight, portable, and reproducible units. This creates an environment where legacy applications can be modernized without an entire re-engineering investment, allowing organizations to capture new business value while reducing operational complexity. This article presents a comprehensive roadmap for containerizing legacy applications, moving them from Solaris to Kubernetes running on Linux. It takes an end-to-end lens, beginning with an understanding of why Solaris is no longer the strategic choice for enterprise IT, followed by an in-depth exploration of how Linux-based containers and Kubernetes can drive business agility. By walking through practical approaches application assessment, code adjustments, dependency management, testing, and deployment the discussion uncovers both the technical and organizational dimensions of this transformation. Beyond pure migration, this article emphasizes cultural shifts, operational best practices, and the future trajectory of workloads running in Kubernetes. The paper also identifies the common pitfalls faced during such milestones and offers pragmatic solutions garnered from industry experience. This guide is not only about keeping the lights on for legacy systems but also about future-proofing IT estates, aligning with agile methodologies, cloud adoption, and modern DevOps practices. The ultimate objective of this paper is to guide IT leaders, architects, and system administrators through the practical steps involved in containerizing legacy applications, reconciling old-world reliability with new-world scalability.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17192526
