Eugenia Charniak is a prominent person at Ispirer that is responsible for leading projects of business logic migration. We sat down with Eugenia and asked several questions about this complicated topic. Let’s start!
1. Can you introduce yourself and your role as a Senior Java Developer?
Certainly! I’m Eugenia, a Senior Java Developer at Ispirer with 10 years of experience migrating, modernizing, and optimizing enterprise-level applications. My role focuses on modernizing legacy systems, and ensuring robust performance - particularly in migrations like moving business logic from databases to the application layer.
2. From your point of view, why do companies come to the question of moving business logic?
When it comes to moving business logic, I think it’s better to look at the issue of migration as an example of the most popular migration direction - Oracle to Java. The most critical reasons are:
- It costs an arm and a leg. If we take Oracle for example, their systems are expensive because of the licensing fees, specialized infrastructure and costly support contracts. Routine maintenance, patches, and upgrades also demand dedicated resources, further driving up operational expenses. Meanwhile, Java runs anywhere, on anything.
- DB business logic is rigid and hard to modify. The thing is that database business logic is closely coupled with the database, so it makes it difficult to make any changes to business logic. PL/SQL-based systems lack flexibility, forcing companies to work around limitations rather than implementing optimal solutions.
- Scalability troubles. Databases are harder to scale horizontally than application servers. By shifting logic to stateless Java services (e.g., Spring Boot), companies can leverage cloud-native scaling (Kubernetes, serverless) more effectively.
- Lack of experts. As companies continue shifting to modern programming languages like Java, Python, or Javascript, the pool of experienced pl/sql developers continues to shrink. So now, and especially over time it may become extremely difficult to find experts in legacy systems.
- Stuck in the past. Oracle-based systems often rely on aging infrastructure and outdated development practices, making integrating modern APIs, cloud services, and automation tools difficult. This restricts businesses from adopting AI, real-time analytics, and microservices - capabilities that are more seamlessly implemented in Java-based architectures.
- Vendor lock-in. Database-specific logic (PL/SQL, T-SQL) ties companies to a single vendor. Migrating to Java makes the system more portable across databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.).
- Expensive replacement. When PL/SQL-based systems become too outdated or inflexible, companies often face the daunting task of rewriting the entire application. Migration to Java allows for a more incremental approach, where business logic can be modernized step-by-step without a complete rebuild, saving time and budget.
3. If there are so many drawbacks of storing BL in a database, why do most companies have it stored in the database?
Honestly? Because it's easy at first. Throwing business logic into the database feels like the quickest solution - just write some stored procedures and boom, it works. Teams under pressure often take these shortcuts to hit deadlines.
The problem is tech debt. What starts as "just this one quick fix" snowballs over years into a tangled mess that's hard to change or scale. By the time companies realize how much it's slowing them down, they're already stuck with this legacy system.
That's where we come in. We help teams carefully untangle this mess and move to cleaner, more maintainable solutions in the application layer. It's like finally cleaning out that junk drawer that's been piling up for years - painful at first, but so worth it in the long run.
4. Is it beneficial to the business to transfer logic to an app layer?
Absolutely - and here's why it matters to the business. Migrating business logic preserves all processes and functions while cutting costs, boosting efficiency, enabling future tech, and ensuring risk-free transitions. You can read more about the benefits in our blog - Why move business logic from pl/sql to java.
5. What businesses benefit most from such a transition?
I guess that the most beneficial such a shift would be for banks, telecommunications companies, insurance, ecommerce, and those who work in the public sector.
6. When it comes to benefits, how would you assume the potential ROI investment when migrating BL to app?
When migrating business logic (BL) to the application layer, the return on investment (ROI) timeframe varies significantly depending on the approach:
- Manual migration includes upfront costs, manual errors, longer downtime risks.
- Automated migration with SQLWays provides faster execution, precision and consistency (which leads to fewer human errors).
Automation slashes development time, testing overhead, and post-migration fixes, allowing businesses to realize cost savings and efficiency gains much sooner. Manual processes, while sometimes necessary for complex custom logic, introduce delays and unpredictability that delays ROI.
With SQLWays, companies break even in 1–2 years due to speed, accuracy, and reduced operational drag - compared to 3–5 years for manual efforts (the exact ROI time depends on the business logic volume). The sooner you migrate, the sooner you unlock scalability, innovation, and cost advantages.
7. Can you describe how exactly SQLWays modernizes business logic to make it written in Java?
Our process combines advanced automation with expert oversight to ensure accurate migration of your critical business rules:
- Intelligent code analysis. We use specialized parsing technology that examines your existing PL/SQL code to understand its structure and logic - similar to how grammar checkers analyze sentence structure.
- Structured conversion process. The system then applies our proprietary transformation rules (developed from 25+ years of migration experience) to rebuild this logic in modern Java. This maintains all your business rules while optimizing them for better performance.
- Expert quality assurance. Throughout the process, our senior migration specialists:
- Validate every transformation
- Handle complex edge cases
- Ensure the new Java implementation behaves exactly like your original system
