Qlik to PHP Legacy Migration & Architecture Recovery
The Challenge
One-Versus-One AG, a Swiss sports technology company, had a critical legacy system built entirely in Qlik. The problem: 40% of the original business logic was undocumented and missing. No specs, no comments, fragmented code scattered across modules. The system was a black box that only one person had ever understood, and that person was gone.
They needed the entire platform migrated to PHP, fully functional, with zero data loss, and handed over to their internal team with complete documentation.
My Approach
This wasn't a straightforward port. It was architecture recovery - reverse-engineering a system that nobody fully understood anymore.
Phase 1: Discovery & Logic Reconstruction
Audited the entire Qlik codebase to map existing functionality
Identified all critical functional gaps where logic was missing or broken
Interviewed stakeholders to reconstruct business rules that existed only in people's heads
Built a complete system architecture map from scratch
Phase 2: Migration & Engineering
Rebuilt the entire system in PHP with clean, maintainable architecture
Engineered the missing 40% of business logic from reconstructed requirements
Designed the database layer with MySQL, optimizing queries for performance
Implemented proper error handling, logging, and monitoring
Phase 3: Optimization & Handover
Performed deep RAM optimization to reduce server resource consumption
Load tested the system under production-level traffic
Deployed using Docker containers on Linux for consistent environments
Wrote comprehensive technical documentation covering every module, every decision, every edge case
Conducted a full team handover so their developers could maintain and extend the system independently
Key Engineering Decisions
Modular PHP architecture over monolithic rewrite: each Qlik module was migrated as an independent, testable component
MySQL query optimization: rewrote data access patterns that were causing memory bloat in the original system
Docker containerization: ensured the new system runs identically across dev, staging, and production
Git-based version control with full commit history: every reconstruction decision is traceable
Results
Successfully migrated 100% of the legacy Qlik system to PHP
Reconstructed the missing 40% of business logic from scratch
Achieved measurable RAM optimization, reducing server resource usage
Delivered full technical documentation for seamless team handover
5-star client rating from Peter Zombori, CEO of One-Versus-One AG
Zero downtime during migration. Zero data loss.
Client
Built for One-Versus-One AG (Switzerland) - a sports technology company requiring mission-critical system reliability.