Originally reported by Container Journal. Published March 2020.
The Problem: Millions of Legacy Desktop Database Apps Still in Production
Despite decades of cloud migration efforts, a large number of businesses still depend on desktop database applications built on platforms such as Microsoft Access. These applications were designed for local or on-premises use, making them difficult—or impossible—to access remotely. The sudden, large-scale shift to remote work in early 2020 exposed this vulnerability sharply: employees simply could not reach the tools they needed to do their jobs.
Retraining staff on entirely new applications in a crisis is not a realistic option for most organizations. The practical need, then, is a migration path that preserves existing workflows while moving the underlying data and application logic to a cloud-accessible platform.
Intact’s ReAccess Service: Containers and Microservices for Rapid Migration
Intact launched its ReAccess managed service to address this gap directly. The service uses a combination of containers, microservices, and serverless functions to lift existing desktop database applications—including those built on Microsoft Access—and re-host them on Azure Cosmos DB, Microsoft’s globally distributed, multi-model cloud database service.
According to Intact CEO J. Larry Aultman, the migration process can be completed in as little as two hours for a qualifying application, enabling organizations to restore access to critical business tools quickly without undertaking a full application rewrite.
Why Containers?
Containers are a natural fit for this migration pattern for several reasons:
- Portability: Application logic and dependencies can be packaged together and moved from a local Windows environment to a cloud runtime without modifying the underlying code.
- Isolation: Each migrated application runs in its own containerized environment, preventing conflicts between legacy dependencies and modern platform requirements.
- Scalability: Once containerized and deployed to Azure, applications can scale horizontally to support remote workforces of varying sizes.
- Consistency: Containerized workloads behave the same way in development, staging, and production, reducing migration risk.
PowerLine: Automated Application Delivery with Encryption at Rest
Alongside ReAccess, Intact also released PowerLine, a managed cloud service focused on automating application delivery. A key security feature of PowerLine is that all data stored on Azure is automatically encrypted at rest, addressing a common compliance requirement for organizations moving sensitive business data to the cloud.
Automating the delivery pipeline reduces the operational burden on internal IT teams, which is particularly relevant for small and mid-sized businesses that may not have dedicated DevOps staff to manage deployment workflows manually.
Windows 7 End-of-Life as a Migration Catalyst
Intact developed ReAccess in part to address a parallel driver: the end of support for Windows 7 in January 2020. Many legacy desktop database applications were built for and continue to run on Windows 7. With Microsoft no longer providing security patches for that OS, organizations running these applications on Windows 7 machines face compounding risk—both from an unpatched operating system and from applications that cannot be easily accessed remotely.
Migrated applications through ReAccess present a Windows 10-style user interface, reducing the learning curve for end users. Intact also manages the replication and synchronization process between databases, enabling an offline working mode—a meaningful capability for users with intermittent connectivity.
The Broader Azure Ecosystem Argument
The strategic logic behind migrating to Azure Cosmos DB is reinforced by the degree to which many organizations have already adopted Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) for productivity workloads. Organizations generating data through Excel, SharePoint, Teams, and other Microsoft cloud services have a coherent reason to consolidate legacy database applications in the same cloud environment—simplifying data integration, access control, and compliance management.
Intact’s bet, shared with Microsoft’s broader partner ecosystem strategy, is that legacy application modernization and cloud-native productivity tools are converging—and that the path of least resistance for many businesses runs through Azure.
Key Takeaways for DevOps and Cloud Engineering Teams
- Legacy desktop database applications (Microsoft Access, dBase, etc.) remain in active use at many organizations and present a real migration challenge.
- Containerization provides a practical mechanism for rehosting these applications in the cloud without requiring a full rebuild.
- Azure Cosmos DB’s multi-model support makes it a viable target for migrating applications from relational and semi-structured desktop database formats.
- Encrypting data at rest should be a baseline requirement for any cloud migration, not an optional add-on.
- The combination of OS end-of-life events and sudden shifts to remote work can create urgent business cases for migration projects that might otherwise be deprioritized.
The ReAccess model illustrates how container-based migration services can fill a practical gap between full application modernization—which requires time and resources—and doing nothing, which carries growing security and accessibility risk.