Challenges Companies Face While Migrating From Existing Language to Golang

5 min readNov 5, 2020

There are many companies out there who are willing to migrate their existing Applications to Golang for the betterment. Golang in many ways and in the various field have outperformed the other existing programming languages and caught the eye of many developers with its impressive features and increasing demand.

The major challenges and question arises to the companies while giving a thought of migrating from the present programming language to Golang are as followed-

Will my existing resources will be ready to adapt to the change
The time and cost it will require to migrate from the existing language to Golang
What benefit will I get migrating to Golang? Has any company done the migration from their existing programming language to Golang before?
How will I get the relevant resource?
How right it will be to outsource the development work
Will I get some relevant resources on the contract to integrate with the existing team if I don't want to outsource the entire work?
Do I need experienced and senior Golang developers or Junior Golang developers will also be fine?

The good news is the answer to all of the above questions is there...........

Will my existing resources will be ready to adapt to the change -

As we all are aware if you belong to a technological background being updated and adapting with change and need is today's requirement. Techie people working for a long on one language sometimes resist switching to the other programming language, the reason may be their ego, laziness towards learning, etc. One fair solution to this problem is to make them understand the reason why you are thinking of migrating to Golang and what is in it for them. Ask them to feel like what it is to be in your shoes.

2. The time and cost it will require to migrate from the existing language to Golang

The time and cost required for your application will be totally dependent on your application. Some factors like the number of resources, number of senior Golang resources, number of junior Golang resources, any new skillset the resources need to learn is the prerequisite of applications, etc can affect the time required for the entire migration to Golang. As there is no need for a huge tech stack. Golang is a compiled language and does not require an interpreter. And which helps to develop an application which will work faster. The use of Golang definitely reduces the cost consumed by the servers.

3. What benefit will I get migrating to Golang? Has any company done the migration from their existing programming language to Golang before?

High-performance and faster execution is today's need and here is where migrating to Golang will definitely help you by developing an application hight Scalable and high-performant. Various features of Golang make it a preferred language for software development and Golang is believed to be the future programming language. Another benefit is that you will save your time and cost once your application is migrated to Golang.

Yes, there are many big companies that have switched from their existing language to Golang, to name some - Salesforce, Stream, Netflix, Uber, PayPal, American Express, etc. And there are many other companies that have adopted Golang for their various requirements.

4. How will I get the relevant resource?

With growing demand and market needs, many developers have switched their carries to Golang and many developers are out there waiting for the opportunity to explore. But Golang being a niche language there comes pros and cons while getting relevant Golang resources. There are also some Golang development company who started adapting Golang for providing services i.e providing their Golang developer on a contract basis but prior to going to this option you should read Things that one should consider while you “ Hire Dedicated Golang Team”

5. How right it will be to outsource the development work

When it comes to the "Outsourcing" word. Many people start taking it as a negative thing for their company, culture, growth, profit, scalability, etc. But they many times underestimate the power of "Outsourcing". There are no issues with Outsourcing in fact when done it right it can help you grow like anything, your profit can touch the sky. Outsourcing helps you to delegate your development work and get it done by the relevant service providers who are experts in that field and your job is just to take the updates. Outsourcing is right and preferred when something requires a niche skillset, has high priority i.e no time of building an in-house team, requires relevant experience resources, etc.

6. Will I get some relevant resources on the contract to integrate with the existing team if I don't want to outsource the entire work?

If you are not willing to outsource the entire work, that will also work fine. But the only concern will be that your existing team, resources should get well versed with Golang. And yes you can get relevant resources from the Golang development companies, Golang development service providers. There are many companies that prefer to integrate and scale their existing team using contract Golang resources provided by Golang Development Companies. Integrating resources with an existing team has its own pros and cons. If we talk about pros, getting ready to onboard relevant Golang resources becomes comparatively easy and fast. If we talk about cons, teams need to collaborate and need to be on the same page as well as the same thought process and this may lead to slowing down the process.

7. Do I need experienced and senior Golang developers or Junior Golang developers will also be fine?

There is no predefined combination or clubbing of how many seniors or how many junior Golang developers are required. The requirement totally depends upon the projects need. It might happen some projects will be good to go with junior Golang developers only and some projects might require senior Golang developers only. And sometimes there can be the requirement for both junior Golang developers and seniors Golang developers. But the combination and relevant requirement of devs no. mostly goes well with outsourcing some parts of the project or the entire project. At that time a concerned company can give you better suggestions about the number and experience of resources required.

Mentioned above are some of the Major Challenges/Question that Companies face while thinking of migrating their current/existing programming to Golang with the required answers to it

You can also read more articles about Golang here-

Author: Reemi Shirsath, COO @ Scalent.io - A Golang Specialized Development Company.

Challenges Companies Face While Migrating From Existing Language to Golang

The major challenges and question arises to the companies while giving a thought of migrating from the present programming language to Golang are as followed-

Written by Reemi Shirsath

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