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The Strangler Fig Pattern, Twenty Years Later
Research & Innovation Lab·February 11, 2026·9 min read
The strangler fig pattern remains the most reliable path to modernizing a legacy system that the business depends on every day. The theory is well known; the discipline to execute it is rare.
Success depends on drawing seams in exactly the right places boundaries where new and legacy systems can coexist without either side compromising correctness.
Done well, a modernization becomes invisible to the people relying on the system daily. That invisibility is the actual measure of success.