How can legacy systems be modernized securely and in a planned manner?

Almost every company is familiar with this problem: Its software and data infrastructure has grown over the years or decades and now supports its most critical business processes.

At the same time, the pressure to modernize is mounting: maintenance costs are rising, technical expertise is being lost, cloud initiatives require new architectures, and AI-driven development approaches place additional demands on structure, documentation, and software quality.

Code2X is HMS’s technology-driven approach to analyzing and modernizing existing software applications. It combines automated code analysis, AI-driven evaluation, and specialized modernization services.

The problem lies in the existing code: missing documentation, unknown dependencies, ad-hoc architectures, and risks that are virtually impossible to quantify. This is precisely what makes modernization projects expensive and difficult to plan.

• Successful legacy modernization begins with a structured analysis of existing applications, dependencies, and risks.
• Simply translating code does not eliminate architectural weaknesses or outdated structures.
• Code2X supports automated code analysis, knowledge extraction, and the evaluation of potential modernization paths.
• An assessment provides a basis for decision-making regarding migration, refactoring, replacement, or new development.
• AI-ready software requires not only modern code but also transparent structures, documentation, governance, and appropriate development processes.

Before any software migration or modernization, two key questions must be addressed: How is the existing system structured, and what is the target state?

Most of the time, there is no complete answer to these questions. Often, only partial information is available regarding which applications and components exist, how they depend on one another, which parts are business-critical, and which are suitable for migration, revision, or replacement.

This knowledge is rarely available in its entirety. Relevant knowledge is often held by individual experts, found in outdated documentation, or is only available to a limited extent after former developers have left the company.

As a result, the effort, costs, and risks of migration projects are difficult to estimate.

Manually analyzing codebases takes time and depends almost entirely on the expertise of individual specialists. Code2X automates precisely this first, crucial step.

The platform analyzes existing applications and provides a solid foundation for modernization:

• Automated code analysis: Structures, patterns, and technical dependencies are made visible
• Complexity and risk analysis: Critical components and potential pitfalls are identified
• Knowledge extraction: Insights derived from the analysis to create technical descriptions and documentation
• Evaluation of modernization paths: Decision support to determine which components should be migrated, refactored, redeveloped, replaced, or decommissioned

In our assessments, we work with you to establish these foundations. This creates a realistic picture of the system before the first major investments in renewal are made.

Many modernization approaches rely solely on translation: code is converted 1:1 into a new language, with the actual modernization to follow later. Without prior analysis, this approach can carry over existing technical weaknesses and result in additional rework. This carries the risk that outdated technical structures, dependencies, and quality issues will be carried over into the new environment and will later require extensive rework.

The modernized system should:

• be understandable and maintainable for developers, operations teams, and business stakeholders,
• enable changes and enhancements with reasonable effort,
• accurately reflect existing business logic,
• take security and governance requirements into account,
• fit into existing development and operations processes,
• and, when necessary, support the integration of AI-powered applications.

Code2X supports companies precisely in this transition: from legacy code to a software foundation with a future. AI-based analysis and agent functions help understand code relationships, build documentation, and prepare for modernization steps in a targeted manner.

Depending on the initial situation, Code2X can assist with the initial evaluation of the codebase or with the structured implementation of a modernization project that has already been planned. Services range from assessments to analyze dependencies, effort, and risks to step-by-step migration, including target architecture, testing, and quality gates.

Learn more about agent-based migration with Code2X:Agent-Based Migration & Legacy Modernization

The requirements for software development are undergoing fundamental changes. AI-powered development tools and agents open up new possibilities. However, their results can be better verified and controlled if the underlying code is structured in a way that is easy to understand, well-documented, and manageable.

Legacy code must therefore not only be migrated but also made AI-ready. Code2X brings together four building blocks to achieve this:

• automated code analysis,
• AI-powered evaluation and documentation,
• governance mechanisms,
• agent-based workflows for selected modernization steps.

This enables companies to lay the foundation for modernizing their systems and continuing to develop them over the long term.