Practice 05 / 05
Legacy Modernization
From the system everyone fears to a platform ready for the AI era.
The situation
A business-critical system that nobody dares touch: the original authors are gone, deployments are folklore, and every new initiative, especially AI, runs aground on it. A rewrite has been proposed and (rightly) feared.
What we do
- Modernization assessments: what the system actually does, where the risk concentrates, and a sequenced plan, typically a few weeks, not months.
- Stabilization first: repeatable builds, characterization tests, and monitoring, so change becomes safe before change begins.
- Incremental re-architecture using the strangler-fig pattern: value shipped at every stage, no big-bang cutover.
- Database modernization and data liberation: getting your data out of closed systems and into shapes AI and analytics can use.
- Replatforming to cloud where it earns its keep, and honest advice about the components that should be wrapped and left alone.