Loosening the Legacy Grip

Mainframe apps (COBOL, Assembler) are difficult to migrate due to language, complexity, tight coupling, and compliance risk. Use code generation to systematically extract logic, translate to modern languages, and generate documentation.

The Problem

Trillions of dollars of business logic runs on legacy mainframes:

• •Written in COBOL, Assembler, PL/I, and other ancient languages
• •Deeply intertwined with business processes
• •Poorly documented
• •Maintained by aging workforce

Migrating this code is incredibly difficult:

• •Language barriers: Few developers know these languages
• •Complexity: Decades of changes create tangled logic
• •Risk: Any mistake could break critical business processes
• •Compliance: Regulated industries need careful migration

The Solution

Use AI for systematic legacy migration:

• •Logic extraction: Understand what legacy code actually does
• •Translation: Convert to modern languages with validated correctness
• •Documentation generation: Create documentation that never existed
• •Test generation: Build test suites to validate migration
• •Incremental migration: Move piece by piece, not big bang

Why AI Changes This

Previous migration tools required extensive manual analysis. LLMs can:

• •Read and understand legacy code
• •Generate equivalent modern implementations
• •Create comprehensive documentation
• •Build test cases from behavior analysis

The Opportunity

Mainframe modernization is a $15B+ market that's been stuck for decades. AI could finally make it tractable.