Overview
The scope covers the management and ongoing maintenance of 12 legacy landscape systems, with parallel workstreams in modernisation, cloud migration, CI/CD pipeline implementation, and automation. The technology stack is built on Java, Spring Boot, Angular, and Kubernetes.
Challenges
Managing a large, ageing multi-system landscape for a global data and analytics company presents compounded complexity:
- 12 interconnected legacy systems requiring continuous maintenance without service interruption, each carrying significant accumulated technical debt.
- Outdated infrastructure not suited for modern cloud-native deployment patterns, creating scalability and reliability risks.
- Absence of CI/CD automation, making deployments slow, error-prone, and reliant on manual processes.
- High risk of system fragility — changes in one legacy system could cascade across dependent services.
- Modernisation pressure without the ability to pause operations, requiring incremental transformation while keeping all systems live.
Our Approach
Frontwalker applied its long-term application management model, combining stability-first maintenance with structured modernisation:
- Legacy system ownership - Full end-to-end accountability for all 12 systems, including incident response, bug resolution, and performance monitoring.
- Cloud migration - Progressive migration of legacy workloads to cloud infrastructure, reducing dependency on on-premise environments and improving scalability.
- CI/CD pipeline implementation - Built automated deployment pipelines to replace manual release processes, reducing human error and accelerating delivery cycles.
- Automation - Introduced automated testing, monitoring, and operational workflows to reduce toil and increase system reliability.
- Technical debt remediation - Refactored legacy Java-based codebases incrementally to improve maintainability without disrupting live services.
- SAFe-compatible agile delivery - Structured sprint cadences with strong governance and continuous stakeholder reporting.
Results
The 14+ year partnership with the client demonstrates sustained, high-trust delivery with measurable operational outcomes:
- Continuous, uninterrupted operation of all 12 legacy systems throughout the modernisation journey.
- Cloud-ready infrastructure established through phased migration, reducing operational overhead.
- Faster, safer releases through CI/CD automation, replacing slow and risky manual deployments.
- Reduced technical debt through systematic refactoring, improving codebase quality and developer velocity.
- One of Frontwalker's flagship long-term reference engagements, demonstrating the ability to own complex enterprise system landscapes over extended timeframes.
