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Writing on legacy modernization

Engineering deep-dives and strategic analysis on legacy modernization. New post every week.

Latest posts × Technical deep-dives + Strategy + Financial services +
Technical deep-dives

COBOL to Java migration cost: what actually drives the number

Aug 31  •  14 min read

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Strategy

Conway's Law Already Chose Your Target Architecture

Conway's Law decides your modernization outcome. How to spot a distributed monolith, restructure teams first, and keep legacy knowledge from walking out.

Aug 26  •  13 min read
Strategy

You Modernized and the Cloud Bill Went Up. Here's Why.

Cloud bills often rise after modernization. Here is why lift-and-shift inverts the economics, and how FinOps, unit economics and correct sequencing fix it.

Aug 26  •  14 min read
Financial services

Modernize Now: Why Legacy Costs Are Breaking the Bank Budget

Mainframe, NonStop, COBOL, and core and payments package costs rise every year for banks. Here's the full cost picture and how to move off them safely.

Aug 4  •  13 min read
Technical deep-dives

Four Ways to Modernize Legacy Code: Replatform, In Place, Rewrite, Replace

A practical guide to the four real options for an aging system, what each one costs in time and risk, when to pick it, and where Gen AI and deterministic transformation each belong.

Aug 4  •  12 min read
Technical deep-dives

The talent shortage for legacy code: why it is getting worse, what it costs, and how to get ahead of it

The people who understand COBOL, PL/I, Assembler, and other legacy languages are retiring faster than they can be replaced. This is what that costs, why hiring won't fix it on its own, and the response that actually shrinks the problem.

Aug 3  •  12 min read
Strategy

How to Fund Modernization When There is No New Features at the End

Modernization business cases die in the CFO's office, not the CIO's, because they are written in engineering currency and submitted to a process that only clears three kinds of argument.

Aug 2  •  12 min read
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