Alchemy Archives - Cloudhouse

November 04, 2026

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

Cloudhouse costs are split into two elements – the licensing required to deploy application compatibility packages, and the professional services needed to create the application compatibility packages.

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications

Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications?

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development

Cloudhouse recommend packaged applications are tested in the standard UAT environments used for natively installed applications, or applications packaged in App-V. The more representative the test environment is of the live environment, the greater the chance of finding any issues prior to go-live.

Updating Applications

Service packs and updates can be applied to the applications in a package using the Editor, refer to Updating, Editing and Maintaining Containers which describes how a new snapshot is created for the update, and how it is then applied to the package.

Operations

Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account?

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment

Applications running in Application Compatibility Packages can be deployed, and managed with same tools, or scripts used to deploy natively installed applications e.g. SCCM, InTune, LAN Desk. Please refer to Supported 3rd Party Products and Versions for details.

Support

Do Cloudhouse provide support 24/7?

Yes! Click here for Support contact details

How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package?

The Cloudhouse Package does not include OS components, it only contains the packaged application plus Cloudhouse components. Cloudhouse recommend the same team that is responsible for supporting applications packaged with App-V, or delivered as natively installed applications, support Cloudhouse Application Compatibility Containers.

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training

Do Cloudhouse provide training?

Cloudhouse offers a full packaging service that can scale to meet any requirement. In the event, however, that a partner wishes to offer application compatibility packaging as part of a wider solution, Cloudhouse will work with that partner. Please contact us here for details.

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Why a tough decision can sometimes mean no decision at all

Sometimes, it can be difficult to see the best way forward. When it comes to the ongoing maintenance of business critical software applications, you can find yourself trapped when older applications become incompatible with newer versions of Windows.

It can feel as if you have only two options: attempt to refactor or replace the application (with the cost, downtime and potential for disruption that this will entail) or keep an older version of Windows running and live with the security issues (any recent headline on ransomware attacks will show where this can lead).

Both paths look unattractive. So, if someone offers a third option – ‘Let’s leave this for now and revisit in the future’ – it’s understandable that many choose that route instead.

We’re only human!

It turns out that this is a perfectly normal human response to a difficult situation. You may have heard of the term “decision paralysis” – it basically means that if we are faced with a difficult choice between action A or B, we instead choose action C, which might be to do nothing at all.

Added to this, our decision-making is also influenced by those around us. For example, a study into gambling behaviour found that when making decisions between safe (lower payoff but more probable) and risky (a higher payoff but less probable) options, people were more likely to make a choice if they had seen others make the same choice. So if we see others delaying making a decision, we are more likely to do the same.

Research has even found that people are willing to put themselves in an objectively worse position in order not to have to make the choice and commit to a path of action. They may even prefer getting worse news that will ‘force their hand’ into a decision (in this case perhaps a malware attack or a system failure?) rather than take a difficult decision pre-emptively to head off this possibility.

The problem of course is that while the decision is paused, the problem itself doesn’t remain static: systems become less compliant and may eventually be unsupported, security risks grow and the refactor option becomes a bigger job.

Take the first step

If this is the situation you find yourself in, Cloudhouse can help. Our solutions allow you to ‘wrap’ non-compliant or incompatible software and run it on the latest version of Windows, meaning you are secure and compliant, without the need to refactor or recode. It’s a real weight off your shoulders.

Why not take the lead and contact us for a free, no obligation chat? We offer a 100% Promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your older apps on the latest version of Windows, or your money back.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

How much does Cloudhouse cost?

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications

Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications?

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development

Updating Applications

Operations

Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account?

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment

Support

Do Cloudhouse provide support 24/7?

Yes! Click here for Support contact details

How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package?

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training

Do Cloudhouse provide training?

Back To Resources

Keeping older Microsoft IIS applications running

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is one of the most popular web servers in the world. With an estimated market share of more than 30%, it’s the third most used web server in the world, behind Apache and nginx.

Many organisations have older web applications that depend on IIS. If yours is one of them, read on to find out how Cloudhouse can provide a simple way to keep applications running exactly like before, but with all the benefits of a modern operating system.

A long history

IIS was first released as a free add-on for Windows NT in 1995, and since that time has been continually enhanced and improved with regular updates. IIS 3.0 introduced the Active Server Pages (ASP) dynamic scripting environment. The latest release is Version 10.0, which is included as part of Windows Server 2019.

Over its long history, IIS has become a core component of application development on Windows. It’s used to host websites and web applications and is a key solution for hosting .Net web applications.

Security and compatibility challenges

This success has, not surprisingly, made IIS a target for bad actors: since 1999 more than 80 security vulnerabilities have been found and patched.

But regular updates and patches can also introduce compatibility challenges. Older ASP or ASP.NET applications can depend on components which are no longer supported on current versions of Windows. Many organisations find themselves with web applications which can no longer be run on modern versions of Windows Server, forcing them to retain older Operating Systems to host older websites.

These older operating systems in turn can introduce security vulnerabilities, and when the operating system reaches the end of its life cycle and it no longer supported, these vulnerabilities cannot be patched.

A difficult position

When an application forces a company to use an older version of a server, this generates a very difficult position – the choice between running older systems with unpatched vulnerabilities and accepting the risk of potential malware and ransomware attacks, or taking the costly decision to redevelop their applications from scratch to be compatible with a modern Windows versions.

But there is a third option. Cloudhouse Alchemy allows you to package up older applications so they will run on the latest versions of IIS, exactly like before – but with all the benefits of a modern operating system.

Proven track record

As an example, many applications depend on ASP.NET1.1, which is no longer supported on Windows Server 2016. The Cloudhouse Alchemy tool allows you to move your application onto the latest operating system with no need for code changes or user retraining. It’s just like magic!

Cloudhouse can package up older web applications to ensure they run successfully on newer versions of IIS. We can take applications from IIS 6.0 (Windows 2003) or later and provide compatibility enabling them to run on any modern version of IIS. We do this using templates that leverage internal IIS tools such as Web Deploy for exporting and restoring websites and settings. Our redirection engine allows us to match deprecated features of older IIS versions with the equivalent features on modern versions, providing complete compatibility with no need to redevelop the application.

We have delivered hundreds of IIS migrations like this, helping clients get up to date quickly, and removing the worry of incompatibility and malware attacks.

Take the next step

Want to find out more? Just contact us for a no-obligation chat. We offer a 100% promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your older Windows app on the latest version of Windows or your money back.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

How much does Cloudhouse cost?

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications

Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications?

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development

Updating Applications

Operations

Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account?

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment

Support

Do Cloudhouse provide support 24/7?

Yes! Click here for Support contact details

How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package?

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training

Do Cloudhouse provide training?

Back To Resources

November 18, 2021 | CLOUDHOUSE | COMPLIANCE | DOS | LEGACY-APPLICATIONS

DOS: the precursor of all modern operating systems

It’s amazing that even though the final official version of DOS was released in the year 2000, DOS can still be found quietly working away behind business critical applications in companies and public sector organisations. Read on to find out how Cloudhouse can help you with migration and customisation.

What is DOS?

DOS stands for Disk Operating System. Version 1.0 of PC-DOS was released with the first PC back in August 1981. It revolutionised computing. DOS is the precursor of all modern Windows operating systems: it’s a single tasking, single user, non-graphical operating system.

Companies created many applications in DOS running important internal processes.

Between 1981 and 1995, all DOS applications were 16-bit: designed to run on 16-bit microprocessors. Some of the popular frameworks from this era include Turbo C/C++, dBase, QuickBasic, Symantec Q&A and Microsoft Visual Basic 1, 2 and 3 to name just a few.

These days, with 64-bit CPUs being the norm in the mainstream personal computer market, this causes issues for old DOS software. The 16-bit CPU instructions required to run 16-bit applications are not accessible from 64-bit Windows. In fact some 16-bit applications fail to run even on 32-bit versions of Windows.

Difficult choices

Companies who still rely on DOS applications are faced with difficult choices when it comes to upgrading their systems.

In most cases with commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) solutions, these will no longer have vendor support, and in many cases the vendor may no longer exist, meaning there are no straightforward upgrade paths for organisations to take.

On top of this, the in-house developed applications from this era are often highly complex, and very difficult to re-factor into modern frameworks – and that’s even when you have the source code. If the source code is lost, it’s even more difficult.

Here at Cloudhouse we have also found that many applications of this era used ingenious hacks and undocumented APIs to achieve results – but these can cause unexpected problems or reliability issues when using existing publicly available solutions.

Cloudhouse can help: our team has MS DOS experience, and we can support you with migration and customisation. This knowledge can be hard to come by these days, but we have worked successfully with clients who have tried and failed to update their system before.

Success stories

Symantec Q&A Database

We successfully migrated a Symantec Q&A Database system with hundreds of complex batch files and macros to run on Windows 10 x64 / Server 2016. Our approach meant the existing batch files and macros could generally be used “as is” without modification. We also optimised a 16-bit CPU emulation layer to get the required performance on the client’s hardware.

Telecommunications software

We worked with a company using an MS-DOS application for interfacing with 1980s telecommunications billing hardware over a serial port. This was successfully migrated to work with Windows 10 x64 and now uses a USB serial port.

Cloudhouse is experienced in many development environments

Cloudhouse has experience in MS-DOS software development, and development environments replicating a range of tools from this era including (but not limited to)

Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)
Turbo C / C++
Turbo Pascal
Clipper
Delphi
QuickBasic
Symantec Q&A
Novell bTrieve
Microsoft Access 1 & 2
Visual Basic 1, 2 & 3

Software diagnostic tools

In addition we have experience using the software diagnostic tools of the era such as

NuMEGA SoftICE
DeGlucker
Windows CodeBack
TurboDebugger

Want to find out more?

If you would like to find out more, contact us for a no obligation conversation. We also offer a 100% Promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your legacy app on the latest version of Windows or your money back.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

How much does Cloudhouse cost?

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications

Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications?

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development

Updating Applications

Operations

Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account?

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment

Support

Do Cloudhouse provide support 24/7?

Yes! Click here for Support contact details

How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package?

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training

Do Cloudhouse provide training?

Back To Resources

In this blog we take a look at Sage, one of the best-known software names on the planet. If your organisation uses Sage software, read on to find out how our compatibility packaging Alchemy allows older applications to run with no need for upgrade, replacement, or retraining.

Founded in 1981, Newcastle upon Tyne-based powerhouse Sage is a global leader in financial and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, with offices in 24 countries. It’s estimated that Sage software is used by more than six million customers. After Oracle and SAP, Sage is the world’s third-largest supplier of ERP software.

It’s a household name for many, not least because the company is also the patron of the Sage Gateshead music venue in Tyne and Wear!

The company is particularly well known for two products: Sage Accounting and Sage Payroll. These are critical components for many businesses, performing all key financial functions including invoicing, payroll, and sales. They’re used by businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to multinationals.

As a long-established supplier, some customers have been using Sage software for many years. It’s a trusted and respected brand with significant levels of loyalty, not least because it offers tailored solutions allowing it to be carefully customised for a client’s individual requirements.

Falling behind on upgrades

Long-standing Sage customers have a system that is working well and carefully tuned to their needs, but upgrades can cause headaches. The computer system requirements needed to install and use Sage X3 have changed over time – for example, version 8 was the last which fully supported Windows 2008.

Completing an upgrade may require complex reimplementation of tailored services, which is not only time-consuming but can feel like a risk for clients: what if this doesn’t go to plan? What if we are left without the functionality we had – at least in the short term? The alternative, installing new software, will not only incur up-front costs but may also mean that additional time must be spent retraining staff.

Understandably, some customers fall behind on upgrades and updates. Eventually, this can mean that, although the software itself is still perfectly functional for their needs, an older operating system may be required to support it. This can force a company to keep a legacy operating system simply to continue using their core business applications.

As time goes by, these older operating systems receive fewer security patches and ultimately may stop being supported at all, leaving customers facing compliance and security risks.

We can help

If this is the situation facing your company, Cloudhouse can help. Our compatibility packaging, Alchemy, allows you to retain your current version of Sage software exactly as it is, with no need for upgrade, replacement, or retraining.

Alchemy provides compatibility for older applications that have become incompatible with current operating systems. Alchemy provides complete compatibility so your older application runs with no changes on any modern OS version, minimising security and compliance risk, while protecting business-critical software.

We have worked with several happy Sage customers and successfully packaged multiple versions of Sage software to allow it to run effectively on the latest versions of Windows. Contact us to find out more and for a no-obligation conversation. And don’t forget, we offer a 100% Promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your legacy Windows app on the latest version of Windows or your money back.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

How much does Cloudhouse cost?

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications

Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications?

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development

Updating Applications

Operations

Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account?

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment

Support

Do Cloudhouse provide support 24/7?

Yes! Click here for Support contact details

How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package?

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training

Do Cloudhouse provide training?

Back To Resources

October 11, 2021 | 100-PROMISE | LEGACY-APPLICATIONS

Are your older apps keeping you awake at night? Do long-standing applications force you to keep older versions of Windows on your estate? Are you worried that these elements of your estate introduce security, compliance and reputational risks? Worrying about what to do when Extended Support Updates (ESU) come to an end? Why not put Cloudhouse to the test and see how we can help?

We’re so confident our software compatibility solution will work for you that we are offering a 100% promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your older Windows app on the latest version of Windows or your money back.

We have delivered solutions for hundreds of enterprises and suppliers across multiple sectors all around the world, from retail to motoring, education to utilities, healthcare to government. Our solutions dramatically lower the time and cost of migration from any Windows platform to any Windows platform – and without the need to refactor, recode or upgrade.

Wherever you need your older app to work, we have a solution that will work for you. On premise. On the desktop. In the cloud.

Key benefits of the Cloudhouse approach:

A permanent fix: when you decouple apps from the underlying OS version, they are no longer at risk if the original provider ends ongoing support
Security and compliance: apps are protected from vulnerabilities in older OS and you can unlock the benefits of current OS versions
Reduced costs: big savings compared to refactoring, redeveloping or replacing – and, if you deploy on modern infrastructure, it will most likely run much faster
Flexibility: complex apps are supported, including those dependent on older components in old OS, such as previous versions of .Net or Java.

To find out more, click here for a no-obligation chat.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

How much does Cloudhouse cost?

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.

Packaging and Maintaining Applications

Who is responsible for packaging desktop and server applications?

Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.

Requirements for Test and Development

Updating Applications

Operations

Who manages Cloudhouse operationally within an account?

Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.

Automation and Deployment

Support

Do Cloudhouse provide support 24/7?

Yes! Click here for Support contact details

How do we know which of our departments/ teams should support the Package?

Documentation for Service Desk & Service Management

Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.

Training

Do Cloudhouse provide training?

Back To Resources

Since 2009 Cloudhouse has been supporting clients as they migrate and future-proof the legacy applications that are critical to their businesses. We’ve gained a wealth of experience in the field of enterprise software. This blog focusses on SAP – one of the biggest names in the business and thought to have more than 420,000 customers in over 180 countries.

German-based SAP is perhaps most well-known for its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, which sits at the core of many businesses. It’s a fantastic product which understandably has many loyal customers. ERP software handles a huge range of tasks including order taking, configuration, warehouse management, manufacturing planning, shipping, financials, and so on. It is often one of the most important software components in a company’s operations.

Huge scope – but customers can require complex implementation

If your company uses SAP software, you may be familiar with SAP R/3, which was revised to be SAP ECC (ERP Central Component), the most recent version being released back in 2004.

Because it covers such a huge scope, SAP can require many integrations with other systems. It is often configured directly to match each customer’s business requirements. This can mean that deploying SAP can be a very involved process. Larger companies may have a team of people working on it for several years. So, it’s no surprise that a new major release can cause headaches: migrating such a big piece of software is a huge project in itself.

Add to this the fact that staff will have been trained on how to run key business processes according to the way their specific implementation is configured, so making a change will require additional training.

For these reasons, customers may have chosen instead to keep an older version of SAP running on their infrastructure to avoid a costly and disruptive upgrade. Although this version may be perfectly functional for their business needs, the knock-on effect is that they may also have to retain an older version of Windows to keep it operational. And this brings with it other downsides, with the resulting increased security and compliance risks.

If this is the situation your company is facing, Cloudhouse can provide a solution that means you don’t have to refactor, recode or upgrade.

How can Cloudhouse help?

Alchemy, our pioneering compatibility packaging, can be used to ‘wrap’ the whole application, including the configuration and scripts, into a package. This process ensures that the application will be compatible with any modern Windows OS with no changes to its functionality, but with all the security, compliance, and performance benefits that this brings.

These are some of the SAP projects we have worked on successfully with previous clients:

SAP R3 3.1i + Oracle 7.2
SAP R3 4.6 + SQL 2005
SAP R3 4.6c + SQL 2005
SAP R3 4.7 + Oracle 10.2.0.5.0
SAP R3 4.7c + SQL 2005
SAP ERP ECC 6.0 EHP5 + Oracle 12.1.0.2.0
SAP ERP ECC 6.0 EHP7 + Oracle 12.1.0.2.0
SAP CRM 5.0 + SQL 2005

If you don’t see your SAP software here, we are still confident we can help. So confident in fact that we offer a 100% promise: all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us will be able to run their legacy Windows app on the latest version of Windows – or their money back.

If you have a legacy SAP application, get in touch to find out how Alchemy can help. Our knowledge and experience mean we can hit the ground running with your requirements and find solutions that work – without the need to refactor, recode or upgrade.

And don’t forget, we offer a 100% Promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your legacy Windows app on the latest version of Windows or your money back.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Commercials

How much does Cloudhouse cost?

Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.

Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.