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Modernization is one of the most talked-about yet misunderstood disciplines in enterprise IT. For decades, organizations have wrestled with the challenge of updating so-called legacy systems, which comprise deeply embedded, mission-critical applications that run on mainframes or midrange platforms. Despite the urgency and investment, modernization efforts often fail. Why?
Because modernization, as a discipline, has become a forgotten art—oversimplified, underestimated, misunderstood, and frequently mismanaged.
This article revisits the core principles of modernization, explores why so many programs falter, and outlines what’s needed to succeed in today’s AI-driven, high-stakes environment.
Modernization: A Constant Need, Poorly Understood
The term 'modernization' has been part of the IT vocabulary for over two decades. It refers to the transformation of older systems to support more contemporary ways of working, through platform upgrades, user interface improvements, code refactoring, or process reengineering.
Yet despite its longevity, legacy or application modernization remains poorly defined and executed. Industry reports, vendor white papers, and analyst models offer varied interpretations. Gartner’s 7Rs framework—Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Retain, Retire, and Reload—aims to apply a standard to the main approaches, but even this model struggles to capture the full complexity of many real-world transformation programs.
Legacy Modernization change programs are typically too complex to be a simple checklist. They require a perspective more akin to one of strategic evolution. And that nuance, and scale, is often forgotten.
Why Modernization Fails—Again and Again
Modernization failure is a worryingly common occurrence. Research consistently shows failure rates between 70% and 79% for large-scale transformation programs. These failures may point at poor planning or lack of executive buy in, yet they often stem from deeper, systemic issues:
- Forgotten systems: Many legacy applications are undocumented or poorly understood.
- Forgotten skills: The expertise needed to understand and modernize these systems is rare and aging.
- Forgotten complexity: Legacy systems are vast, interconnected, and constantly evolving.
- Forgotten history: Previous failed attempts leave behind technical debt and cultural resistance.
- Forgotten alignment: Stakeholders often have conflicting views on what modernization should look like.
These forgotten factors contribute to a cycle of modernization myopia—where organizations pursue transformation without truly understanding the landscape they’re navigating, or the complexities of the changes they aim to make.
What Modernization Needs to Succeed
To break the cycle, modernization must be redefined as a holistic, flexible, and expert-led process. Success requires:
- Comprehensive discovery tools to understand the current state
- Flexible modernization platforms that support multiple end-state scenarios
- Deep project implementation expertise to manage complexities of scope and scale
- An open, agnostic, customer-centric approach where the modernization approach is defined by the organization’s needs, not the supplier’s preference
In short, successful legacy modernization must embrace trust, strategy, and adaptability.
The AI Factor: Rediscovering Possibility
Artificial Intelligence is breathing new life into modernization. Once a slow, manual process, modernization is now being accelerated by AI-powered tools that can:
- Analyze, understand, and document legacy code
- Generate business rules, test cases
- Identify future performance bottlenecks
- Automate code conversion
- Detect project risks
A 2025 study by Kyndryl found that 88% of organizations were implementing or planning to implement AI in their modernization strategies. Moreover, 80% had changed their approach in the past year—proof that AI is reshaping the modernization landscape.
However, GenAI doesn’t replace expertise, it serves to enhance it. It helps rediscover what’s been forgotten: the structure, dependencies, and potential of legacy systems, automating the mundane process of discovery to provide experts with information and insight.
AveriSource: Reviving the Forgotten Art
Redefining modernization must consider the complexities of the strategic goal – evolving working systems towards a better version of themselves by understanding both the complexities (and incumbent value) of the existing assets, and the complexities of the changes required to achieve a preferred end-state, regardless of what that might be.
This forgotten art requires the use of robust and comprehensive technologies, woven together with proven expertise and know-how of those helping you on that journey.
With over 30 years of experience, AveriSource combines deep domain knowledge and services know-how with an AI-powered platform refined against billions of lines of code.
What sets AveriSource apart?
- Comprehensive application support for 70+ legacy and modern technology stacks
- Battle-tested modernization tooling refined over billions of lines of project code, infused with AI innovation
- A dedicated, experienced services approach and global services network
- Customer-defined transformation paths based on client objectives
Rather than prescribing a fixed solution, AveriSource enables organizations to explore all possible current states and future outcomes. It’s a flexible, robust approach that respects the complexity of modernization, and revives the forgotten art of doing it right.
Conclusion: Remembering What Matters
A recent Garter survey reported that 69% of IT leaders are spending more in the coming year on application modernization, and that the task is a top 5 CIO challenge. It is a discipline that demands respect, expertise, and strategic clarity. The failures of the past are operational and cultural as well as technical. They stem from forgetting what successful modernization truly entails.
To accomplish a large-scale legacy modernization program, organizations must remember:
- The complexity of their legacy systems
- The importance of deep discovery and planning
- The value of flexible, comprehensive, AI-enhanced tooling
- The need for trusted, experienced partners
Modernization as a discipline is more critical than ever. Doing it right has been forgotten. It’s time to rediscover it.
To learn more, sign up to watch our latest webinar here.
AveriSource: Redefining Legacy Modernization.
