Senior Customer Success Manager

Application modernization is not just pushing the AI button. August 24, 2026 Application modernization is a top priority for many organizations, and the market is growing at 15% a year. Much of the demand is driven by the need to ensure systems are AI-enabled. Gartner released the AI Augmented Code Modernization Magic Quadrant August 3, which shows Microsoft, AWS, and Moderne as the leaders, with Rocket Software and BMC as the challengers. IBM, Cursor, and Anthropic are the visionaries, and EvolveWare the niche player. In their post about appearing as a leader in the quadrant, Microsoft says that AI coding reduces the time and cost of modernization, eliminating the major barrier. This is an important factor and definitely something AI can help with. But modernization cannot be about AI automation alone. It has to be about why you would modernize an application, the business value of doing so, how you would define the strategic target architecture, and how to document the current state. The trickiest part for AI has to be defining the target architecture. Although many have tried, it isn't possible to incrementally infer or generate a target architecture from a current state, and the current state is pretty much all AI has to go on. Business and technology changes too fast. Someone has to look toward the future and figure out what it will look like. Without this, modernization is only a cost saver, and its true value goes unrealized. In fact the argument that you need to modernize to ensure systems are AI enabled is a perfect example of the fallacy that AI assistance is all you need to succeed. No one really knows what it means to ensure your systems are AI enabled, because no one is really sure about the role AI plays in all applications. At this point everyone is basically guessing and changing course as quickly as possible as the technology evolves and people figure out what it's really good for. Natural vs managed evolution. At Credit Suisse Intellyx had an architecture program called "managed evolution," which called for inserting abstract interfaces between an application and its UI and other integration points. Once access to an application was abstracted, Intellyx could update and evolve the technology stack to move it or pieces off the mainframe, for example, or to modern languages and products, without disturbing application users. This could be very useful for AI, but of course someone has to do the design work. The opposite of managed evolution, of course, is natural evolution, which inevitably produces a "big ball of mud," just as the lack of building codes produces a shanty town without running water or a sewage system. And if you leave the design work up to AI it's very likely this is what you'll get. One of the major motivations for modernization is to migrate to supported or secure versions of vendor products. But a software upgrade by itself wasn't always easy to justify, since very often a new software product version did not include any new features Intellyx needed. Often Intellyx had to wait for the budget to be approved for a strategic change (i.e. business value change) to tie the software upgrade to. Microsoft's argument makes more sense for this purpose, but of course what they want is for you to migrate to new versions of Microsoft technology. (As a side note this is a fundamental conflict between software vendors and their customers, since a vendor's business model depends on selling new versions of software products while businesses using older versions typically do not have any clear requirement for features in the new versions. Nobody really needs a new feature in Word, for example.) A better motivation for modernization is to improve the strategic business value of an application - in other words, add features and capabilities that either drive additional revenue or increase cost efficiency. The ROI of modernization becomes clearer and stronger. (Managed evolution also helps here since it's easier to introduce new capabilities into a coherent architecture.) An overlooked consideration is often that organizations don't really want "bug for bug" compatibility with existing applications. They want modern versions of applications to meet new requirements, and to eliminate capabilities they no longer need. Forget about the current application. As good as AI tools are at source code understanding and rewriting or generating code, they are not very good at enterprise architecture. They do not work at the big picture level. Someone has to define an architecture framework for the AI tools, and tell them how to break up the problem into modules they can assemble. A major challenge of modernization then becomes how best to design the target state of the new application to achieve maximum ROI. At Citi I would encourage business and technology application owners to completely forget about the current version of an application, and instead think about what it should look like in 3-5 years as a target (and by the way it's not an "end" state because it's always moving). First, they had to figure out what their business would look like in 3-5 years, taking into account technology, business, and market trends. This was often the most challenging part because it was hard to get agreement. The idea was to figure out what business services they wanted to offer to increase business or retain customers, and if they could do that, Intellyx could pretty easily define the matching software services, map those to the current state, and identify the gaps Intellyx needed to close. Intellyx used service oriented architecture because it more easily and naturally maps to the services an enterprise offers its customers. Using the simple example of a bank, the tellers offer deposit, withdrawal, transfer, loan payment, and perhaps currency exchange services. Each of these can easily be modeled as a software service by using the name of the function and identifying the data to be submitted for processing, and optionally returned on the reply. (This is, by the way, in my opinion at least, much easier than trying to define objects with methods, although this will also work.) Documenting the current state. Once you have defined the target state for the modernized application, you have to clearly and exhaustively document the current state of the application to understand what to keep, what to change, and what to add. This is where the AI modernization tools really help. AI is great at summarizing large amounts of information and performing research tasks that otherwise would take humans a long time to complete. Gartner offers a longer list of modernization vendors in their reviews and ratings, including Astadia, Blitzy, Cast, COBOL Colleague, Devin, Mechanical Orchard, Model Core, Swimm, and VFunction, among others. These products are variously aimed at cloud migration, COBOL/mainframe modernization, documentation, microservices refactoring, transcoding, and so on. Mostly they try to solve the problem in a single step, and take an existing application (anything is production is legacy, as someone said) and modernize it in one pass. Most of the modernization vendors listed by Gartner require you to identify the source and target before you get started. This can work but as I've noted this approach will not result in the best ROI since it skips over the 3-5 year strategic target architecture step. I would like to mention three additional products: Concho, Gallop, and VCola. Congo and Gallop provide an essential result of source code understanding and analysis that allows customers to produce and work with an intermediate representation of an application, integrating the intermediate representation with a series of AI agents that analyze, work iteratively with humans on the design, and then generate the new application. An agentic AI system such as VCola consumes that representation as context to define a target state and generate code for that target state. In other words these products are not tied to a particular input and output pair, and are not trying to automatically convert or transcode an application from one format to another. I think this is the right approach to define and achieve a strategic modernization outcome with an excellent ROI, rather than investing in a project that simply reduces time and cost and produces a like for like (bug for bug) version of the application. The intellyx take. Application modernization has never been so popular. AI is the motivation and the enabler. People want to modernize to take advantage of gen AI capabilities for business benefit - in fact this is becoming a point of competition. AI coding agents are reducing the time, effort, and expense to nearly zero. In fact you could almost say that the code generation part doesn't matter, it's the quality of the requirements, target architecture, and application understanding that does. Organizations have invested significantly in automating their business processes. And now the knowledge of operating the business is effectively encoded in these applications using computer programming language and it needs to be converted into human language for AI tools. The world needs a kind of reverse engineering process to undo the process used to create the applications in the first place (i.e. converting human language to computer language). But the large companies are focused on migrating applications to their platform. Most startups don't have depth and breadth of expertise in legacy apps. Foundation models are incomplete because they are not trained on legacy code and don't understand legacy applications. The key seems to be producing an intermediate state that humans and agents can work with to figure out and design modernized applications for strategic value. Not simply transcoding or upgrading the tech stack.

Rocket Software joins the HPE Unleash AI partner program to accelerate AI adoption across mission-critical environments. Expanded collaboration with HPE empowers organizations to fully enable AI while managing risk WALTHAM, Mass., June 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Rocket Software, a global technology leader in modernization software, today announced an expanded strategic collaboration with HPE, building on its recent acquisition of Vertica(R) to accelerate delivery of a sovereign, AI-native data lakehouse. With this collaboration, Rocket Software is deepening integration of the Vertica high-performance analytics platform with HPE infrastructure to power secure, high-performance analytics at scale. Simultaneously, through the HPE Unleash AI partner program, Rocket(R) DataEdge Data Replicate and Sync (RDRS), the first Rocket Software product validated within the HPE Unleash AI ecosystem, enables organizations to continuously and securely make system-of-record data available to AI and analytics platforms in real time, moving from AI experimentation to real operational impact without disrupting core business systems. Together, Rocket(R) Vertica(R), combined with GreenLake and HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000, delivers a powerful foundation for enterprise AI, unifying high-performance analytics with scalable, object storage optimized for data-intensive, mission-critical workloads. In March, HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000 achieved NVIDIA(R)-Certified Storage validation for object-based systems at the Foundation level, becoming the first object storage system to reach this milestone. With Vertica's MPP architecture, advanced query performance and in-database machine learning, advanced analytics and AI paired with the X10000's disaggregated, S3-compatible architecture and GreenLake Flex's pay-per-use consumption model, enterprises can reduce data movement, lower costs, and accelerate time to insight, supporting real-time analytics and AI at scale across hybrid environments. The HPE Unleash AI partner program is a curated ecosystem, combining ISV solutions that go through comprehensive validation testing with engineered HPE AI systems, including HPE Private Cloud AI and the broader HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA solutions, to deliver the performance, security, and scalability enterprises need for production AI. Vertica strengthens the HPE Unleash AI program by providing the high-performance analytics engine needed to turn data pipelines into real AI outcomes. While DataEdge RDRS brings real-time data into the ecosystem, Vertica enables that data to be immediately analyzed, modeled, and operationalized through advanced SQL analytics and in-database machine learning, allowing organizations to move from data ingestion to insight and action without shifting data across multiple platforms. "At Rocket Software, we believe the future of AI is built on trusted, high-performance data wherever it lives," said Michael Curry, President of Data Modernization, Rocket Software. "Our partnership with HPE and the acquisition of Vertica bring that vision to life by combining powerful AI with hybrid flexibility to help enterprises unlock value faster. Together, we are enabling a sovereign data lakehouse approach that keeps data in place, brings AI to it, and gives organizations the control, scale, and performance they need to innovate with confidence." "Rocket Software plays an important role in strengthening the HPE Unleash AI ecosystem by bringing trusted data, high-performance analytics, and deep enterprise expertise," said Robin Braun, Vice President of AI Business Development for Hybrid Cloud, HPE. "Together, we are enabling customers to run AI across hybrid environments with the control, sovereignty, and performance required to turn data into actionable insight at scale." About Rocket Software Rocket Software is a global technology leader in modernization and a partner of choice that empowers the world's leading businesses on their IT and mainframe modernization journeys, spanning core systems to the cloud. Trusted by over 13,000 customers and 750 partners, and with more than 3,000 global employees, Rocket Software enables customers to maximize their data, applications, and infrastructure to deliver critical services that power our modern world. Rocket Software is a privately held U.S. corporation headquartered in the Boston area with centers of excellence strategically located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Rocket Software is a portfolio company of Bain Capital Private Equity. Follow Rocket Software LinkedIn and X or visit www.RocketSoftware.com. For media inquiries: Lacey Darrow [email protected] Nvidia is a trademark of NVIDIA Corporation Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. TheTechOutlook.com takes no editorial responsibility for the same.

Rocket Software joins the HPE Unleash AI partner program to accelerate AI adoption across mission-critical environments. 18 June, 2026 Summary. Expanded collaboration with HPE empowers organizations to fully enable AI while managing risk WALTHAM, Mass. - June 18, 2026 - Rocket Software, a global technology leader in modernization software, today announced an expanded strategic collaboration with HPE, building on its recent acquisition of Vertica(R) to accelerate delivery of a sovereign, AI-native data lakehouse. With this collaboration, Rocket Software is deepening integration of the Vertica high-performance analytics platform with HPE infrastructure to power secure, high-performance analytics at scale. Simultaneously, through the HPE Unleash AI partner program, Rocket(R) DataEdge Data Replicate and Sync (RDRS), the first Rocket Software product validated within the HPE Unleash AI ecosystem, enables organizations to continuously and securely make system-of-record data available to AI and analytics platforms in real time, moving from AI experimentation to real operational impact without disrupting core business systems. Together, Rocket(R) Vertica(R), combined with GreenLake and HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000, delivers a powerful foundation for enterprise AI, unifying high-performance analytics with scalable, object storage optimized for data-intensive, mission-critical workloads. In March, HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000 achieved NVIDIA(R)-Certified Storage validation for object-based systems at the Foundation level, becoming the first object storage system to reach this milestone. With Vertica's MPP architecture, advanced query performance and in-database machine learning, advanced analytics and AI paired with the X10000's disaggregated, S3-compatible architecture and GreenLake Flex's pay-per-use consumption model, enterprises can reduce data movement, lower costs, and accelerate time to insight, supporting real-time analytics and AI at scale across hybrid environments. The HPE Unleash AI partner program is a curated ecosystem, combining ISV solutions that go through comprehensive validation testing with engineered HPE AI systems, including HPE Private Cloud AI and the broader HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA solutions, to deliver the performance, security, and scalability enterprises need for production AI. Vertica strengthens the HPE Unleash AI program by providing the high-performance analytics engine needed to turn data pipelines into real AI outcomes. While DataEdge RDRS brings real-time data into the ecosystem, Vertica enables that data to be immediately analyzed, modeled, and operationalized through advanced SQL analytics and in-database machine learning, allowing organizations to move from data ingestion to insight and action without shifting data across multiple platforms. "At Rocket Software, we believe the future of AI is built on trusted, high-performance data wherever it lives," said Michael Curry, President of Data Modernization, Rocket Software. "Our partnership with HPE and the acquisition of Vertica bring that vision to life by combining powerful AI with hybrid flexibility to help enterprises unlock value faster. Together, we are enabling a sovereign data lakehouse approach that keeps data in place, brings AI to it, and gives organizations the control, scale, and performance they need to innovate with confidence." "Rocket Software plays an important role in strengthening the HPE Unleash AI ecosystem by bringing trusted data, high-performance analytics, and deep enterprise expertise," said Robin Braun, Vice President of AI Business Development for Hybrid Cloud, HPE. "Together, we are enabling customers to run AI across hybrid environments with the control, sovereignty, and performance required to turn data into actionable insight at scale." About Rocket Software Rocket Software is a global technology leader in modernization and a partner of choice that empowers the world's leading businesses on their IT and mainframe modernization journeys, spanning core systems to the cloud. Trusted by over 13,000 customers and 750 partners, and with more than 3,000 global employees, Rocket Software enables customers to maximize their data, applications, and infrastructure to deliver critical services that power its modern world. Rocket Software is a privately held U.S. corporation headquartered in the Boston area with centers of excellence strategically located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Rocket Software is a portfolio company of Bain Capital Private Equity. Follow Rocket Software LinkedIn and X or visit www.RocketSoftware.com. For media inquiries: Lacey Darrow