Stop Spending Millions on Museum Pieces: Why Legacy Modernization Can't Wait

You are running mission critical systems that literally keep your business alive. Billing systems, manufacturing controls, customer databases. These applications have been the backbone of your operation for decades, but the cost of maintaining legacy systems can be staggering - often reaching into the hundreds of millions annually across an organization's application portfolio.

You've been kicking this can down the road because these systems are too important to risk touching. The workforce that knows how to maintain them is disappearing. And frankly, good luck finding a 25-year-old developer who wants to learn COBOL.

Here's what's changed: battle-tested code modernization tools now exist to transform these applications safely and automatically, often reducing costs by 70 to 90%, while finally unlocking decades of trapped innovation.

In this episode of WWT Presents Research, we dive into Priority Four from WWT's Cloud Priorities for 2025 research report - how organizations are moving beyond fear and taking action on automated application modernization. Host Robb Boyd is joined by Dave Sellers, GM of Multi-Cloud, and Rachel Komeshak, Senior Solutions Principal, who've been helping customers navigate this transformation safely and profitably.

Watch the full show on the WWT platform: "Legacy Application Modernization: Priority Four for Cloud Success"

The Economics Have Fundamentally Shifted

Dave Sellers has seen plenty of migrations, but legacy modernization has been the elephant in the room. "Historically we've just kicked the can. They're mission critical. We don't want to touch them. We don't have a workforce that's really wanting to work on them any longer," Dave explains.

The numbers tell a stark story. Consider a typical enterprise scenario: "$10 million for a legacy mainframe footprint. And that's all up. That's people, that's the equipment, that's the support fees, that's the licensing of the tools and the software running on it," Dave outlines. "Let's say you add 12 legacy systems in your footprint and you're a manufacturing company or healthcare company. So you're talking about a significant amount of cost to that IT structure every year, and it's only going up."

Using Dave's math: 10 systems times $10 million equals $120 million annually for infrastructure that's 25 years old and not advancing. Not improving. Just maintaining the status quo.

But here's the transformation potential: "How do I take a couple million dollars, modernize that thing into a modern architecture stack and take advantage of all the things we mentioned and reduce that cost by, I'm seeing in certain situations 70 to 90%. So that $10 million system may drop down to a million and a half."

The result? Instead of $120 million annually, you're looking at $12-15 million - while gaining modern capabilities.

Why Now Is Different

What's changed isn't just the economics. As Rachel Komeshak, WWT's Senior Solutions Principal for digital transformation, points out, the risk equation has flipped: "As these applications get harder and harder to maintain, I think if I were in that position, that's what would be keeping me up at night - we have developers who are maybe aging out of the workforce, are no longer available to support these sorts of things."

The knowledge trapped in aging developers' heads represents an existential business risk. These aren't just any applications - they're the mission critical systems that run your core business operations.

Dave emphasizes the breakthrough: "If I could take a code base that's 20 years old and in three months modernize it to something that's in the cloud and a native architecture using today's tools and services, and then get today's benefit of having all the coding assistant tools, the AI engines, all these things that are now popping their heads up and proving to be very beneficial, now is the time we can really talk about this."

The Five-Phase Transformation Framework

WWT has developed a structured approach that breaks legacy modernization into manageable phases:

Phase 1: Discovery and Assessment

This isn't just about cataloging what you have - it's about understanding what's possible. "We've got our WWT digital team that can do feature function enhancements. They can do application discovery. They can go look at your environment and see which ones are best candidate, hardest candidate," Dave explains.

Rachel adds a crucial insight: "We may get in there and say, sure we can modernize this, we can move it over, or we can start over. I think that's one of the other things that makes World Wide unique - we're not gonna waste your time on something like that."

Phase 2: The Modernization Engine

Here's where the magic happens. WWT partners with a company that's been doing automated application modernization for over 25 years, with hundreds of projects under their belt. "They guarantee a 99.9% code modernization success with a year warranty attached to it, that they'll come back if something is missed," Dave notes.

The fear many organizations have? Ending up with "JoeBol" - some unholy hybrid of Java and COBOL that makes things worse, not better. Dave assures: "I can assure you that that's not the case with this intellectual property. It will truly modernize it. You get to pick the target database. You get to pick the target tools and services you're using."

Phase 3: Testing and Validation

Rachel emphasizes WWT's approach: "We never work in a silo. We always want to be transparent. We always wanna get that input and understand what the problem is that we're trying to solve."

The timeline is surprisingly aggressive. "The average conversion or modernization, better word, of the actual legacy code base is typically between 90 and 120 days. So the magic is done in three or four months," Dave explains. Total project timelines rarely exceed nine to 12 months.

Phase 4: Deployment and Enhancement

The initial deployment focuses on parity - making sure the modernized system does everything the legacy system did, just better. But the real value comes next. As Dave puts it: "Let's get it modernized and then let's make it the next phase and the next phase where now we have the opportunity where we can really go in and enhance, or those things that have been tickling your brain for years that you said, I really wish it would do X, Y, and Z."

Rachel points to integration as a major unlock: "It might even be interfaces that exist in your ERP system or something else that you're able to now tap into that in a legacy infrastructure you just weren't even able to take advantage of."

Phase 5: Business Transformation

This is where modernization becomes strategic advantage. Modern architectures enable real-time analytics, AI-powered insights, and integrations that were impossible with legacy systems. "I need data out of this old horse and I need to make decisions on a real-time basis, but it can't do that," Dave notes about legacy limitations.

AI as Accelerator, Not Automator

There's an important distinction here about AI's role in modernization. While AI isn't doing the heavy lifting of code conversion (that's handled by proven IP developed over decades), it becomes incredibly powerful once systems are modernized.

"AI is really powerful when it can look at a large set of similar data, right? Or at least a set of data that's consistent," Dave explains. But the legacy systems are typically "homegrown, for purpose, built the way I wanted it."

Rachel frames it perfectly: "We need to think about AI in terms of an accelerator, not an automator. So I think that's the differentiation of where we're at right now. To Dave's point, it can help you do these things faster. It can help you make decisions faster, but we're not at the point where we're just gonna set it and forget it and walk away."

Once modernized, however, AI becomes transformative: "Run this test while I go to lunch, or tell me three code recommendations while I sleep tonight. Or can you run through the documentation and find anything that seems to be out of place? All of those AI use cases just took app dev from 2022 to 2030."

How to Get Started: The Blueprint Approach

The beauty of WWT's approach is that you can test the waters before committing. Dave outlines the process: "You can take the actual legacy code, and we will do this at no cost to the customer. You can run it through this engine, it will show you the architecture that it's going to create."

This blueprint model de-risks the entire process. "Now you know it makes sense financially. I'm gonna improve my business operations, I'm gonna improve the experience for my users. I'm gonna improve my ability to accelerate this through AI, and I can see what it's gonna look like for free."

The process requires either sharing the code base (not the data) or, in secure environments, installing analysis tools on-premises through proper security protocols.

The Competitive Imperative

Dave's closing insight cuts to the heart of the matter: "It's a lot of money to maintain the status quo. I don't know any business leader that thinks they can compete the next five years by remaining as is."

Rachel drives home the urgency: "I think that the opportunity is just there right now to take your business a step forward. I think this is something that has been a big risk to businesses for a lot of years and now we can de-risk it. Now we can do this faster in a way that makes it so approachable."

Her challenge to leadership is direct: "I think this was one of those things that was easy to say, let's kick to the next fiscal year. And my challenge would be, make it a 2026 goal. Now is the time to do it."

The Choice Is Yours - For Now

The conversation makes one thing crystal clear: maintaining legacy systems isn't just expensive anymore - it's become the bigger risk. Every year you delay, the problem gets more expensive and the available expertise becomes more scarce.

The tools exist today to change this equation. Battle-tested modernization technology refined over 25 years. AI-assisted development that accelerates everything once you're modernized. And specialists confident enough to offer year-long warranties on their work.

The question isn't whether you should modernize these mission critical applications. The question is whether you'll do it proactively while you still have choices, or wait until you have no other option.

If you're ready to stop spending millions annually on museum pieces and start unlocking the innovation trapped in 30-year-old code, it's time to take that first step.

You can find the complete Cloud Priorities for 2025 research at wwt.com

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