70% of Modernization Projects Fail.
Yours Doesn't Have To.
Your legacy systems are holding you back. Every new feature takes months. Every security patch is a fire drill. You're spending more to stand still than competitors spend to move forward. But you've heard the horror stories—migrations that crashed production, transformations that burned millions with nothing to show. We modernize platforms through reversible, incremental changes that keep your business running while your technology catches up. No big bang. No betting the company. Just steady progress toward modern infrastructure.
What is Platform Modernization?
Platform modernization is the process of updating legacy technology infrastructure—applications, databases, and systems—to modern cloud-native architectures that improve performance, security, scalability, and maintainability. It encompasses application modernization services, cloud migration services, legacy system modernization, and digital transformation services to help organizations escape technical debt and accelerate innovation. Unlike lift-and-shift approaches, comprehensive IT modernization services apply the right strategy (rehost, replatform, refactor, repurchase, retire, or retain) to each application based on business value and technical complexity.
US delivery from Austin HQ. On-prem and GovCloud options available.
The Legacy Trap: Why Standing Still Costs More Than Moving Forward
Legacy systems aren't just old technology. They're a strategic liability that compounds daily. Every year you delay modernization, the gap between your capabilities and market expectations grows wider. The cost to maintain increases. The talent willing to work on it decreases. The security vulnerabilities multiply.
The numbers are sobering: Accenture found that legacy system maintenance drains $1.14 trillion in productivity annually from U.S. companies alone. The average cost to maintain a single legacy system is $30 million per year. And 72% of C-suite executives say their legacy platforms are actively holding them back.
The Maintenance Drain
Your IT team spends 60-80% of their time keeping legacy systems running. Every hour on maintenance is an hour not spent on innovation. Critical developers become "keepers of the flame" for systems nobody else understands.
The Deployment Bottleneck
Deploying new features takes weeks—sometimes months. Testing is manual. Rollbacks are terrifying. Meanwhile, competitors ship multiple times per day. Your pace of innovation is constrained by your infrastructure.
The Security Time Bomb
Legacy systems run on frameworks that no longer receive security updates. Vulnerabilities accumulate. Compliance becomes harder with each audit. The systems handling your most critical data are the least protected.
The Talent Crisis
Try hiring a COBOL developer. Or finding someone excited to work on that 15-year-old codebase. Modern developers want modern tools. Your legacy systems limit your talent pool to specialists who are retiring.
The Scale Ceiling
Your architecture was designed for a different era. Vertical scaling only goes so far. Monolithic databases create bottlenecks. When traffic spikes, your system crashes. Your infrastructure can't flex with your business.
Why 70% of Modernization Projects Fail—And How to Be in the 30%
Digital transformation has become a $2.3 trillion graveyard of failed projects. McKinsey found that 70% of transformations fail to meet their objectives. Bain's 2024 study puts the failure rate at 88%. These aren't small projects failing—these are multi-million dollar initiatives with executive sponsorship. So why do they fail?
The Big Bang Approach
"We'll replace everything at once." It sounds efficient. It's actually catastrophic. Big bang migrations mean big bang failures. When a complete cutover fails, there's nowhere to fall back.
Incremental migration using the strangler fig pattern—gradually replacing functionality while keeping the legacy system running.
Lift and Shift Without Modernizing
"We'll just move it to the cloud." But moving a monolith to AWS doesn't make it cloud-native. It just makes it an expensive monolith. Lift-and-shift often increases costs while delivering none of the expected benefits.
Right-sizing the modernization approach—rehost what makes sense, refactor what needs it, rebuild what requires fundamental change.
Technology Without Strategy
"Containers will solve everything." Tools matter, but they're not strategy. Organizations adopt Kubernetes without understanding how to operate it. Technology change without process change is just expensive chaos.
Business-driven modernization that aligns technology choices with operational capabilities and business objectives.
Ignoring Organizational Change
"The new system is better, so people will use it." They won't. Change management isn't optional. Teams resist new systems. Training gets cut. Six months after go-live, people use workarounds that recreate the old process.
Modernization programs that treat organizational change as a first-class deliverable, not an afterthought.
Reversible Modernization: Progress Without Risk
We approach modernization differently. Not as a single project with a fixed end date, but as a continuous capability that transforms your technology safely over time. Every change is reversible. Every migration is incremental. Your business never stops running while we modernize the systems beneath it.
Strangler Fig Pattern
Instead of replacing systems wholesale, we gradually strangle legacy functionality. New features get built on modern infrastructure. Existing functionality migrates piece by piece. The old system shrinks as the new system grows.
No big bang cutover risk. Continuous value delivery. Ability to pause or reverse at any point.
Reversible Everything
Every change we make can be undone. Database migrations have rollback scripts. Feature deployments have kill switches. Infrastructure changes are version-controlled. If something goes wrong, we go back—not scramble forward.
Confidence to move fast because you can always go back.
Value at Every Step
Modernization that only pays off at the end isn't modernization—it's a bet. We structure programs so every phase delivers measurable value. Three months in, you see results. The full transformation compounds on earlier wins.
ROI that builds rather than waits, maintaining stakeholder support.
Business Continuity First
Your business doesn't stop while we modernize. Production stays up. Customers stay served. We operate around your operations—deploying in windows that work, testing exhaustively, maintaining fallback options at every stage.
Modernization that enhances rather than disrupts.
What is the 6 Rs of Migration? Choosing the Right Modernization Strategy
The 6 Rs framework categorizes application modernization strategies: Rehost (lift and shift), Replatform (lift and reshape), Refactor (re-architect), Repurchase (replace with SaaS), Retire (decommission), and Retain (keep for now). This cloud migration strategy helps organizations match the right approach to each application's business value, technical debt, and strategic importance.
Understanding rehost vs replatform vs refactor is critical for successful enterprise cloud migration. Not every application needs the same treatment—application portfolio rationalization identifies which systems warrant full rearchitecture and which simply need modern infrastructure.
What is the Strangler Fig Pattern?
The strangler fig pattern is an incremental modernization approach where new functionality is built around the legacy system, gradually replacing it piece by piece while keeping the old system operational. Traffic is progressively shifted to modern components until the legacy system can be safely decommissioned. This pattern enables monolith to microservices migration without the risk of big-bang cutovers, making it ideal for legacy application migration where business continuity is non-negotiable.
From Assessment to Production: Our Modernization Journey
Discovery & Assessment
We analyze your entire application portfolio to understand what you have, what it costs, and what each system's strategic importance is.
Architecture & Planning
We design the target architecture and detailed migration plan for prioritized applications. Every decision documented, every risk identified.
Foundation & Infrastructure
We build the modern infrastructure foundation—cloud environments, container platforms, CI/CD pipelines, observability stack.
Migration & Modernization
We execute the modernization roadmap—migrating applications, refactoring code, implementing new capabilities with continuous validation.
Optimization & Handoff
We optimize modernized systems, transfer knowledge to your team, and establish practices that keep systems modern going forward.
Discovery & Assessment
We analyze your entire application portfolio to understand what you have, what it costs, and what each system's strategic importance is.
Architecture & Planning
We design the target architecture and detailed migration plan for prioritized applications. Every decision documented, every risk identified.
Foundation & Infrastructure
We build the modern infrastructure foundation—cloud environments, container platforms, CI/CD pipelines, observability stack.
Migration & Modernization
We execute the modernization roadmap—migrating applications, refactoring code, implementing new capabilities with continuous validation.
Optimization & Handoff
We optimize modernized systems, transfer knowledge to your team, and establish practices that keep systems modern going forward.
Where Platform Modernization Delivers Value
Legacy Monolith to Microservices
Monolithic application can't keep up. Every change requires full regression. Different teams step on each other.
Data Center Exit
Data center lease expiring. Hundreds of applications need to move. Risk of bad migration is business-stopping.
Mainframe Modernization
Critical logic on mainframe costing millions. Specialists retiring. Risk of touching it seems higher than keeping it.
Cloud Cost Optimization
Lifted and shifted to cloud, but costs higher than on-prem. Not getting expected benefits.
Security Modernization
Legacy systems on unsupported software. Known vulnerabilities. Compliance audits increasingly difficult.
Scale-Up Architecture
Growing fast but architecture designed for company you were 3 years ago. Every growth milestone is a crisis.
Complete Modernization Infrastructure
Cloud Infrastructure
Production-ready cloud environments on AWS, Azure, or GCP. Infrastructure as code ensures everything is reproducible and auditable.
Container Platform
Kubernetes infrastructure for containerized workloads. Service mesh. Container registry. GitOps pipelines.
CI/CD Pipelines
Automated build, test, and deployment enabling multiple deploys per day. Feature flags. Automated rollback.
Observability Stack
Monitoring, logging, and tracing for visibility into systems. Dashboards. Alerts. Distributed tracing.
Security Controls
Security embedded throughout. IAM. Network segmentation. Secrets management. Compliance controls.
Modernized Applications
Applications transformed according to their 6 Rs strategy. Containerized, cloud-native, or replatformed.
Operational Runbooks
Documentation for day-to-day operations. Incident response. Troubleshooting guides. Scaling procedures.
Training & Knowledge Transfer
Team training on new technologies. Paired work. No forced dependency—you operate independently.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Benefits from Platform Modernization
CTOs & Engineering Leadership
You know modernization is necessary. You've seen the horror stories. You need a partner who can execute without betting the company.
IT Operations Teams
You're drowning in maintenance. Legacy systems consume every hour. Innovation is a luxury you can't afford when keeping lights on is all-consuming.
Development Teams
You want to ship faster. You want modern tools. You're tired of fighting infrastructure designed before you graduated college.
Security & Compliance
Every audit surfaces new vulnerabilities. Unsupported software is everywhere. The risk register grows while resources don't.
Scale-Up Companies
You've outgrown your initial architecture. What worked for first 1,000 customers won't work for next 100,000.
Industries We Modernize
We bring application modernization consulting expertise to organizations across regulated and high-growth industries where legacy systems create competitive disadvantage.
Financial Services
Financial services modernization for core banking, payment systems, and trading platforms with compliance preservation.
Healthcare
Healthcare IT modernization for EHR systems, clinical workflows, and patient portals with HIPAA compliance built-in.
Government
Government IT modernization for citizen services, case management, and legacy mainframe systems with FedRAMP pathways.
Manufacturing & Retail
Manufacturing digital transformation and retail digital transformation for ERP, supply chain, and omnichannel platforms.
Modern Technology Stack
We implement using proven, industry-standard technologies—no proprietary lock-in.
Cloud Migration Services
AWS Migration, Azure Migration, GCP Migration
Expert AWS migration services, Azure migration services, and GCP migration. Cloud-agnostic architecture where possible, cloud-native optimization where it delivers value. Multi-cloud and hybrid strategies supported.
Kubernetes Migration
EKS, AKS, GKE, OpenShift
Expert Kubernetes migration and container migration services. Docker to Kubernetes migration, VMware to cloud migration, and containerization services with production-grade networking, security, and observability.
Infrastructure as Code
Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, ARM
Terraform consulting and IaC expertise. Everything defined in code, version controlled, reproducible, auditable. Enables consistent deployments across environments.
CI/CD & GitOps
GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, ArgoCD
Automated pipelines from commit to production.
Observability
Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenTelemetry
Metrics, logs, traces correlated.
Databases
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, managed services
Right database for workload. Migration strategies for zero downtime.
Investment & Engagement Options
Modernization Assessment
4-6 weeks
- Portfolio inventory
- Technical debt assessment
- 6 Rs strategy per application
- Prioritized roadmap
- Business case with ROI
- Risk assessment
Targeted Modernization
3-6 months
- Assessment for target applications
- Architecture design
- Infrastructure implementation
- Application modernization
- Data migration
- Training & knowledge transfer
- 30 days post-launch support
Platform Transformation
12-24 months
- Complete portfolio assessment
- Enterprise architecture
- Cloud foundation & container platform
- Multiple application modernization
- CI/CD & security controls
- Change management
- Extended support
Typical ROI
Platform modernization typically delivers: 40-60% infrastructure cost reduction, 30-50% operational burden reduction, 10x deployment velocity, elimination of security vulnerabilities. Positive ROI typically within 12-18 months.
Modernize Without the Risk
Your legacy systems aren't going to modernize themselves. Every month of delay increases technical debt, security risk, and competitive disadvantage. But modernization doesn't have to be a terrifying bet-the-company project.
Start with an assessment. We'll analyze your portfolio, identify quick wins and critical risks, and develop a roadmap that delivers value incrementally. Clear strategy. Reversible execution. Measurable progress.
Join the 30% who succeed at modernization.
At a Glance
Industry Deployment Patterns
How different industries modernize legacy platforms for performance and cost efficiency.
Finance
Legacy core banking modernization
Migrated COBOL mainframe to Java microservices with zero-downtime, achieving 78% cost reduction and enabling real-time fraud detection
Retail
E-commerce platform scalability
Modernized monolithic e-commerce to API-first architecture, handling 12x Black Friday traffic with 82% latency reduction
Healthcare
HIPAA-compliant EHR integration
Modernized patient data platform with end-to-end encryption, achieving SOC 2 Type II and 95% faster API response times
Architecture Decision Guide
Choosing the right MLOps architecture for your organization's scale and governance needs.
| Approach | When to Use | Tradeoffs | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modular Monolith | Teams <50, Rails/Django/monorepo culture, gradual migration preferred | Faster deployment (4-6 weeks), simpler ops, but limited independent scaling | SMB, startups scaling to mid-market, risk-averse organizations |
| Microservices | Large teams (50+), polyglot requirements, independent scaling critical | Maximum flexibility and scale, but higher operational complexity and DevOps maturity required | Enterprise, high-growth SaaS, multi-product platforms |
| Strangler Fig | Legacy systems with high risk, phased migration over 12-24 months | Lowest risk with continuous delivery, but longer timeline and dual-system maintenance | Government, heavily regulated industries, mission-critical systems |
| Hybrid (Modular + Services) | Mid-size teams, balance of governance and flexibility needed | Pragmatic approach avoiding microservices sprawl, but requires strong architectural judgment | Growing companies, B2B SaaS, platform teams |
Migration Strategy Comparison
We help you choose the right modernization approach based on your team size, risk tolerance, and scaling requirements.
Modular Monolith
Teams <50, Rails/Django apps, gradual modernization
- •Faster initial migration (4-6 weeks)
- •Simpler deployment and testing
- •Lower operational complexity
- •Preserves existing team structure
- •Shared database can be bottleneck
- •Requires discipline for module boundaries
- •Limited independent scaling
Microservices
Large teams (50+), polyglot needs, independent scaling
- •Independent deployment and scaling
- •Technology flexibility per service
- •Team autonomy and ownership
- •Fault isolation
- •Higher operational complexity
- •Distributed system challenges
- •Network latency overhead
- •Requires DevOps maturity
Strangler Fig Pattern
Legacy systems, risk-averse orgs, phased approach
- •Lowest migration risk
- •Continuous delivery during migration
- •No big-bang cutover
- •Learn and adjust incrementally
- •Longer total timeline
- •Dual system maintenance period
- •Proxy layer complexity
- •Incremental value realization
Hybrid (Modular + Services)
Mid-size teams, balance of governance and flexibility
- •Best of both worlds
- •Extract only truly independent services
- •Reduce microservices sprawl
- •Pragmatic approach
- •Requires architectural judgment
- •Service boundary decisions critical
- •Can drift to one extreme
Before/After Architecture
Visual transformation from monolithic to modular architecture with API gateway, observability, and deployment automation.
Technology & Integration Matrix
Week-by-Week Timeline
Typical 4–8 week modernization sprint broken into measurable phases with clear acceptance criteria.
Architecture & Instrumentation
- Module boundaries defined with API contracts
- Baseline SLOs and error budgets established
- Observability stack deployed (distributed tracing, structured logging)
- Test gap analysis and contract test scaffolding
Refactor Wave & Dual-Run
- Extract first modules (Catalog, Orders, Payments, etc.) with API edges
- Dual-run mode enabled: shadow traffic validation against legacy
- Integration tests passing with contract validation
- First canary deployment (10% traffic) with metrics comparison
Cutover & Handoff
- 100% traffic migration with zero-downtime cutover
- Rollback rehearsal: proven <15 min MTTR to legacy
- Cost tuning: autoscale policies, rightsizing, reserved instances
- Runbook handoff with SLO dashboards, alert policies, and escalation procedures
Procurement & RFP Readiness
Common requirements for Platform Modernization vendor evaluation and procurement.
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Outcomes
See the math →- •Measurable p95 latency drop & infra cost reduction
- •Zero-downtime cutover, dual-run validation
- •Observability + error budget in place
- •Faster release cadence with lower risk
What You Get (Acceptance Criteria)
Our standards →Timeline
4–8 weeks
Team
Solution ArchitectBackend EngineerDevOps LeadQA Engineer
Inputs We Need
- •Current architecture docs and pain points
- •Performance baselines (p95, throughput)
- •Target cost reduction %
- •Release cadence goals
- •Compliance/security requirements
Tech & Deployment
Languages: Ruby/Rails, Node.js, Python/Django/Flask, Java/Spring Boot, .NET/C#. Cloud: AWS, Azure, GCP, on-prem/hybrid. Containers: Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, AKS, GKE. CI/CD: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure DevOps. Observability: Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus/Grafana, Sentry, CloudWatch. Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB. API Gateway: Kong, AWS API Gateway, Azure APIM, Nginx, custom.
Proof We Show
Full evidence list →Frequently Asked Questions
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