Rocket Software has acquired Vertica® Enterprise Analytics. Learn more
Replatforming and refactoring to minimize risk and maximize modernization
Transform your mainframe workloads with confidence. Preserve your trusted business logic while unlocking cloud agility, reducing costs by up to 90%, and accelerating innovation—all without the risk of costly rewrites.
SUMMARY
Why replatform and refactor instead of rewrite?
Your mainframe applications represent decades of battle-tested business logic and mission-critical reliability. Rocket Software helps you modernize these assets through intelligent replatforming and refactoring—preserving what works while transforming how and where your applications run. This approach delivers rapid ROI and minimizes disruption without the risks and costs of complete rewrites.
How Rocket Software enables successful modernization:
Build your application once and deploy it to as many platforms as needed. Reduce operational costs by up to 90% and achieve rapid return on investment.
Move core applications across mainframe, x86, or cloud environments. Adapt your IT strategy to meet business demands rather than technical barriers, scaling infrastructure up or down with no compromise on performance.
Avoid expensive, risky rewrite projects. Replatform and refactor your existing code, preserving decades of trusted business logic while safely moving to cloud, CI/CD, and scalable architectures.
Trusted by enterprises worldwide
700 +
IBM Z® workloads successfully modernized
75 %
typical cost reduction achieved
1M +
Automated test cases ensuring consistent, reliable, and dependable results
MODERN INTEGRATION
Break down silos and connect mainframes with cloud, analytics, and AI
Mainframes operate in isolation, creating barriers to integration with modern cloud services, advanced analytics platforms, and emerging AI capabilities. This isolation limits your ability to leverage new technologies and creates friction in delivering unified digital experiences. Modern business demands connectivity across all technology layers.
Key capabilities:
- Deploy applications across mainframe, x86, or cloud environments with ultimate flexibility
- Enable seamless integration with modern DevOps pipelines and CI/CD workflows
- Connect legacy systems with cloud-native services, analytics, and AI platforms
- Maintain operational continuity while adopting modern architectural patterns
COST OPTIMIZATION
Shift spend from maintaining systems to driving innovation
Organizations face mounting pressure to reduce the high costs of maintaining infrastructure. The challenge isn't just about cutting costs—it's about reallocating resources to activities that drive competitive advantage.
Key capabilities:
- Reduce operational costs by up to 90% through efficient replatforming
- Optimize infrastructure utilization with flexible deployment options
- Achieve rapid ROI by preserving existing investments in business logic
- Scale infrastructure up or down based on actual demand without performance compromise
BRIDGING SKILLS GAPS
Overcome expertise shortages with modern tools and automation
The shrinking pool of mainframe experts creates significant challenges for maintaining and advancing mission-critical applications. As experienced professionals retire, organizations struggle to find replacements with deep knowledge of COBOL, PL/I, and mainframe architecture. This skills gap threatens operational continuity and innovation velocity.
Key capabilities:
- Empower developers with modern, familiar IDEs that reduce the learning curve
- Automate complex analysis and refactoring tasks to compensate for expertise gaps
- Preserve business logic in well-documented, maintainable code
- Enable knowledge transfer through intelligent tooling and clear documentation
MINIMIZING RISK
Modernize while preserving reliability and compliance
Regulatory requirements, evolving security threats, and the constant risk of costly outages demand modernization approaches that don't compromise reliability or compliance. Organizations need transformation paths that maintain operational stability while meeting stringent regulatory standards and security requirements.
Key capabilities:
- Preserve decades of trusted business logic with semantics-preserving transformations
- Maintain compliance throughout the modernization journey
- Eliminate the risks associated with complete application rewrites
- Deploy with confidence using proven, production-grade platforms
What do customers say about working with Rocket Software?
The Rocket Software solution has doubled our monitoring capacity, cut infrastructure costs by 80%, and enabled seamless transitions without disrupting services.
Franz Zambrano Architecture and Innovation Manager Banco Guayaquil
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between replatforming and refactoring for mainframe systems?
Replatforming involves moving your existing mainframe applications to run on different infrastructure—such as cloud platforms or commodity hardware—without fundamentally changing the application code. This approach preserves your business logic while reducing infrastructure costs and increasing deployment flexibility.
Refactoring, on the other hand, involves restructuring and modernizing the application code itself to improve maintainability, performance, or compatibility with modern development practices. This might include transforming legacy Assembler code into more maintainable languages or restructuring monolithic applications into more modular architectures.
Rocket Software's solutions often combine both approaches, allowing you to move applications to modern infrastructure while selectively refactoring code where it delivers the most value. This balanced approach minimizes risk while maximizing the benefits of modernization.
How does Rocket Software ensure modernization without business disruption?
Rocket Software prioritizes business continuity throughout the modernization journey. Our approach includes:
Semantics-preserving transformations: We use compiler-grade analysis to ensure that refactored code maintains exact functional equivalence with the original, eliminating the risk of logic errors.
Comprehensive dependency analysis: Enterprise Analyzer maps all application dependencies, data flows, and integration points before any changes are made, preventing unexpected disruptions.
Phased migration strategies: We enable gradual transitions that allow you to validate each step before proceeding, rather than risky "big bang" approaches.
Production-proven platforms: Enterprise Server provides enterprise-grade reliability and performance, ensuring your applications run with the same stability on modern infrastructure.
Our customers have successfully modernized thousands of applications with zero service interruption, demonstrating that modernization doesn't have to mean disruption.
Can I move my COBOL applications to the cloud without rewriting the entire codebase?
Yes. Rocket Software's replatforming solutions enable you to deploy existing COBOL applications directly to cloud infrastructure without rewriting code. Enterprise Server provides a highly compatible runtime environment that executes your COBOL applications on cloud platforms—including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud—with minimal or no code changes.
This approach preserves your investment in existing business logic while delivering cloud benefits such as elastic scalability, pay-as-you-go pricing, and integration with cloud-native services. You can modernize your deployment infrastructure today and selectively refactor application code over time as business needs dictate, rather than undertaking expensive, risky rewrite projects.
What security and compliance standards are maintained during the application modernization process?
Rocket Software's modernization solutions are designed to meet the most stringent security and compliance requirements:
Security certifications: Our platforms maintain industry-standard security certifications and comply with frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and others relevant to regulated industries.
Audit trails: Comprehensive logging and tracking capabilities ensure that all changes are documented for compliance and audit purposes.
Data protection: Encryption, secure communication protocols, and data handling practices ensure that sensitive information remains protected.
Our approach preserves the security and compliance posture of your existing applications while enabling you to adopt modern security practices and cloud-native security services. We understand that for regulated industries, compliance isn't optional—it's fundamental to successful modernization.