From Legacy VB6 to Multi-Tenant SaaS: A Case Study in Healthcare Platform Modernization

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One-liner summary:
Ideas2IT helped a healthcare ISV modernize its VB6 and .NET monolith into a HIPAA-compliant, multi-tenant SaaS platform using their proprietary modernization accelerator Legacyleap
Industry
Healthcare
Location
New Jersey, USA
Tech Stacks
Challenge

Re-architecting a live, HIPAA regulated product from VB6 to SaaS had to be done without breaking existing customers, workflows, or compliance guarantees.

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The Problem with the Status Quo

The client, a healthcare ISV supporting over 290 provider organizations, had grown its legacy solution into a widely deployed product but every instance was a single-tenant deployment, spread across on-prem data centers and Azure VMs. Their .NET 4.7.2 monolith was coupled with VB6 integration services, and the backend was tightly bound to SQL Server workloads. UI responsiveness, compliance posture, and deployment agility were falling behind client expectations. The company needed to replatform without risking reliability, data integrity, or HIPAA compliance.

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Where the Gaps Were

Hidden Problem Why It Matters Post-Close / Value-Creation Risk
Legacy / monolithic architecture Difficult to scale or integrate; refactoring is costly and time-consuming
Poor-quality or undocumented code Leads to bugs, unstable releases, high maintenance overhead, and slows down feature rollout
Fragile or inconsistent data pipelines & ETL/ELT logic Data-driven decisions, analytics, AI-based features, cross-sell depend on clean, reliable data brittle pipelines make this a ticking time bomb
No CI/CD, lack of test automation, weak DevOps / QA practices Increases risk of regressions, slows down delivery, increases time-to-market; makes changes risky
Security, compliance, tech-stack debt, unsupported dependencies Post-acquisition legal/regulatory risks, vulnerabilities, potential breaches or compliance violations especially critical in regulated verticals or global ops
Data governance & privacy gaps, poor documentation, reliance on tribal knowledge Onboarding becomes expensive, maintainability suffers, value declines over time

What We Delivered

Ideas2IT led the architecture design, strategic planning, and execution using LegacyLeap, our proprietary modernization companion platform. The goal was to rebuild the entire product into a sustainable SaaS model aligned to modern engineering principles.

Key Moves:

  • Legacy Refactoring
    • Rewrote all VB6-based HL7, Fax, and DICOM services as containerized microservices in .NET 8.
    • Used LegacyLeap to scaffold modular REST APIs from the existing .NET monolith.
  • SaaS Architecture Implementation
    • Adopted schema-per-tenant database design on AWS with robust routing and RLS enforcement.
    • Integrated API Gateway, centralized secrets management, IAM, and encryption protocols.
  • Frontend Modernization
    • Rebuilt the frontend using React, React Hook Form, and Redux Query for faster performance and modular UI.
    • Implemented deep linking, modular components, and scalable design patterns.
  • Migration & Automation
    • Seamlessly migrated 290+ customer environments from Azure VMs and on-prem to AWS cloud.
    • Automated CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration (ECS), and end-to-end test validation.

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Outcomes We Achieved

Area Outcome
Deployment Velocity Cut new tenant onboarding time from 3 weeks → <1 day
Platform Efficiency Consolidated 290+ siloed deployments into a single multi-tenant SaaS
Tech Stack Upgrade Migrated VB6 + .NET monolith to .NET 8 microservices with API-first design
Compliance & Security Achieved HIPAA-grade controls: RBAC, RLS, encrypted data, IAM
UX Transformation Rebuilt UI using React Hook Form 2× faster navigation, deep linking support
Operational Uptime Achieved zero-downtime cutover with automated CI/CD and rollback safety nets
Industry
Healthcare
Location
New Jersey, USA
Tech Stacks
Challenge

Re-architecting a live, HIPAA regulated product from VB6 to SaaS had to be done without breaking existing customers, workflows, or compliance guarantees.

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Key Takeaways

  • Don’t forklift a monolith instead disassemble and recompose.
  • React Hook Form and schema-per-tenant proved critical for scale and speed.
  • LegacyLeap helped abstract and translate tribal knowledge baked into VB6 and Crystal Reports logic.

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