How Platform Engineering Enables Modernization And Cloud Adoption
As organizations advance in their digital transformation, the modernization of legacy applications and the adoption of new technologies are becoming fundamental strategies to drive competitiveness. Yet, many enterprises still grapple with the complexity of legacy systems, fragmented toolchains and the daunting risks associated with large-scale migrations. Platform engineering can bridge this gap by enabling safe, incremental modernization while supporting unified application management.
The first enterprise applications emerged 25 to 30 years ago, when Java and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) were launched. Since then, Java has remained a foundational technology for business-critical systems. In effect, fast forward to 2025, and Java (as well as enterprise Java) remains a dominant force in enterprise IT. Nearly 70% of organizations have more than half of their applications built with Java or running on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
A significant share of production workloads still rely on older Java versions, and legacy applications remain at the heart of business operations for the vast majority of enterprises. To give some context, current statistics report that 80% of companies plan to continue leveraging past investments in Java applications, which typically number in the hundreds for large firms and in the thousands for big enterprises.
Even more, while many organizations are currently modernizing Java applications, 19% of modernized Java applications will still use Java 8, which was released in 2014, rather than more recent versions, such as Java 17, 21 or 23.
These current trends clearly show how legacy enterprise Java applications still form the backbone of daily operations for a large portion of the global market, with organizations continuing to depend on them for mission-critical workloads and key business activities. While essential, these aging systems often lack the flexibility, scalability and security required for today's digital operations. They can also be difficult and costly to maintain or scale.
To address these issues, a growing number of firms are investing in enterprise Java modernization strategies and migration engineering tools, with organizations expected to modernize over 80% of their existing Java applications. The associated modernization efforts are expected to divert 45% of available developer resources on average, potentially for five years or more.
The Growing Role Of Platform Engineering
Platform engineering, an approach that focuses on unified, self-service technology platforms, can help organizations address the issues associated with legacy application performance and modernization.
In effect, platform engineering principles are all about streamlining and standardizing the development, deployment and management of applications to improve productivity, reduce operational overheads, shorten application cycle times and accelerate speed to market. These gains are achieved through standardized, scalable and reusable systems as well as automated workflows.
By utilizing application platforms, developers can quickly access resources without delays through self-service tools. In addition, automations can handle repetitive tasks, such as provisioning and deployment, cutting down manual work, while the standardized workflows and environments offered can reduce errors and simplify troubleshooting. Furthermore, built-in security features and centralized monitoring tools keep systems reliable and compliant.
Platform Engineering As A Migration Engineering Tool
One less-discussed benefit of platform engineering for software development and IT teams is its ability to support modernization efforts, simplifying and streamlining key activities while reducing their risks. In fact, the traditional approach to application modernization typically consists of replatforming or rearchitecting entire systems in one sweeping move. While these methods promise relatively quick transformations, they can lead to extended downtime, high costs and can disrupt essential business operations.
A comprehensive, compatibility-oriented application platform offers a more pragmatic, incremental path. Thanks to its core capabilities, it can help organizations modernize legacy Java applications in well-planned stages while offering a unified system to maintain and run both brownfield and greenfield applications, addressing the needs of both systems.
How To Choose An Application Platform For Effective Modernization
The strategic, compatibility-first approach offered by platform engineering can help software development teams innovate and reduce technical debt, as well as future-proof their application portfolio at a sustainable pace. However, as the number of solutions available is expanding exponentially, it is important to select a suitable option.
First, it is essential for organizations to identify intuitive interfaces that emphasize developer experience in order to reduce onboarding time. The right platform should also embed the necessary security and compliance requirements as well as auditability to help ensure robustness, resilience and alignment with relevant regulations.
Comprehensive monitoring and observability tools are essential for maintaining application health, diagnosing issues and optimizing performance. It is also advisable for platforms that provide built-in dashboards, real-time alerts and integration with popular observability solutions. This visibility is crucial for enhancing application reliability and supporting continuous improvement throughout the modernization journey.
The ideal platform should also support robust customization and easy integration with other systems, APIs and third-party services to futureproof modernization efforts while empowering developers with the tools they seek and require.
Portability is another critical factor when choosing an application platform for modernization, as it has direct impacts on an organization's ability to avoid vendor lock-in and maintain strategic flexibility. In practice, it is advisable to choose a solution that allows applications and data to be moved seamlessly between different environments and technology stacks without extensive rework or disruption.
In particular, the right platform should allow teams to deploy and manage applications wherever suitable—on-premises, across multiple clouds or in hybrid environments. This flexibility is key to helping organizations meet data residency requirements and application needs while helping modernization strategies involving the transition from on-premises to cloud-native or cloud-first.
Finally, it's important to evaluate the total cost of ownership (TCO) associated with a platform and whether it aligns with current budgets. In particular, organizations should evaluate the long-term operational expenses, including maintenance, support and scalability, in addition to the upfront expenditure.
Legacy Java applications are not going away anytime soon. However, by prioritizing these criteria, organizations can rely on an application platform that not only addresses the immediate challenges of legacy modernization and application maintenance but also positions them for sustainable growth and innovation.
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