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Legacy Modernization

Articles, podcasts, talks, and more about Legacy Modernization.

Nebu: Self-made sovereignty

There are plenty of open-source alternatives to Slack. None of them deliver real sovereignty. Community editions are deliberately pared down so no company can run them in production, while enterprise features sit behind commercial licenses. This article shows why “building it yourself” is no longer a utopian idea today, but a realistic option for anyone with a product vision and a bit of DIY courage.

Where AI Helps (and Hurts) Across Different Coding Scenarios

Where does LLM-assisted software development improve developer productivity—and where does it fall short? Instead of treating AI in software development as a one-dimensional productivity booster, we explore the question across several dimensions suggested by a Stanford-adjacent study: project maturity, task complexity, and the popularity of the programming language. The goal is to create a more realistic expectation baseline for both software developers and leaders—well away from today’s hype.

Modern Legacy (thanks to AI)

Why Focusing on Code Alone Falls Short in the Age of AI

Managing Geopolitical Risks with Enterprise Architecture

IT leaders in Europe increasingly face questions about whether geopolitical developments – such as data protection disputes or trade conflicts between the EU and the US – threaten the viability of US cloud services. The risks range from price increases and legal uncertainties to potential usage restrictions. CIOs must not only ensure functional IT operations but also proactively assess external risks. This article demonstrates how enterprise architecture methods can help identify risks early and develop viable alternatives.

The Path to Heterogeneous Cloud Platforms

Digital transformation brings both challenges and opportunities for businesses. To create future-proof and flexible IT infrastructures, more and more companies are adopting multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategies. This isn’t just about cost reduction, but also about aligning innovative services from different providers with regulatory requirements - particularly in the area of data protection. This article shows how targeted integration strategies can help you leverage the benefits of multi-cloud to optimize your existing infrastructure, reduce technical dependencies, and ensure long-term business success.

Software Analytics going crAIzy!

From analyzing problems in software systems to working solutions with AI

From Data Graveyards to Knowledge Landscapes

Europe is sitting on a wealth of public data—but much of its potential remains untapped. The challenges are well known: fragmented portals, incompatible interfaces, and growing reliance on non-European platforms that slow innovation. While new industrial data spaces are emerging—enabling secure and sovereign exchange of sensitive information—public and industrial data ecosystems remain largely siloed. This article explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) can help bridge that gap and accelerate Europe’s shift from Open Data to Open Knowledge—supporting digital sovereignty and delivering greater value to society.

Technical and other Debt in IT Systems

This article explores the many hidden forms of technical debt that silently slow down IT teams—far beyond just messy code.

LLM-assisted Abbreviation Mining for Legacy Systems

Deciphering the Hidden Language within Old Software Programs

Perfect solution for legacy code

This article is about people who are passionate about improving legacy systems. They are motivated to constantly reduce technical debt to ensure that software systems remain expandable in the long term. Prejudices and stereotypes in our industry prevent us from making the best possible use of these people’s potential.

The Evolutionist

The current training and further education of software developers strongly focuses on the development of new software. Conferences and trade magazines are full of new programming languages, new tools, new hypes, which seemingly never cease to amaze. Quick results, direct feedback, and unprecedented productivity are suggested. The urge to incorporate the new into one’s software is awakened – until one is brought back to reality: their own legacy system.

Micro Frontends With Ionic And Capacitor

Evolving software like an orchardist

Software systems are usually larger, overgrown structures that developers need to bring back into shape after some time. However, creating an overview of the sprawling conglomerate of software components is challenging, let alone developing a clear plan for moving on. This blog post uses analogies from pruning apple trees to show developers how to evolve their software systems using a value-based approach.

How AI will replace my job

In late 2022, I decided to try to use ChatGPT, an AI language processor, to do some of my daily software development work. Now, only a few weeks later, I am convinced AI might soon do most of my current work, at least measured by hours.

Software quality in the context of value chains and evolution

Mapping of quality attributes on a Wardley Map for a more informed assessment of software systems

What’s in a name: Legacy

The term “legacy” has a negative connotation in IT, and stands for an old, somehow bad piece of software. In real-life, legacy has a completely different and often positive meaning.

Visualizing the progress of a refactoring into a hexagonal architecture using jQAssistant

In my last project, we decided to refactor the inner structure of one of our services into a Hexagonal Architecture. It was clear that this was no task that could be done within a couple of days. During this long-running refactoring, we wanted to make our progress visible. Where are we now? What did we already have achieved? What do we still have to do? In this blog post, I describe the approach we took and how it helped us with our task.

Integral Evolutionary Organizations

A way to organize a company without hierarchies with self management based on evolutionary purpose

Case Study

DEVK: Standardizing Security and Compliance Across a Complex Software Landscape

Case Study

Building a learning platform that enables continuous pedagogical evolution

Case Study

Fleurop: A modern architecture for reliable floral greetings

INNOQ Technology Night Berlin with Kevlin Henney on November 13

Case Study

Creating a “Best in Industry” E-Commerce Platform with Self-Contained Systems