Learning Path
Modernizing applications to use IBM WebSphere Liberty
Application modernization is now a critical priority for enterprises that want to stay competitive, reduce operational costs, and improve agility. Many enterprises still rely on complex, legacy systems that are difficult to maintain, scale, or integrate with modern cloud-native architectures. Technical debt accounts for a large part of total technology estate value, and developers spend significant time maintaining legacy systems instead of building new capabilities.
Application modernization is the process of updating legacy systems to improve performance, scalability, and maintainability while aligning them to modern platforms such as the cloud. Modernization efforts can become difficult and time-consuming without the right tools and insights.
This article introduces IBM Application Modernization Accelerator (AMA) and explains how AMA — and its IDE extension AMA Developer Tools — can help address these application modernization challenges. IBM Application Modernization Accelerator (AMA) helps you scan your entire application estate, visualize dependencies, generate actionable modernization plans, and integrate with execution tooling, all in one platform.
What is Application Modernization Accelerator (AMA)?
Application Modernization Accelerator (AMA) is a solution designed to help analyze, plan, and execute your application modernization journey. If you are familiar with IBM application modernization tools such as Transformation Advisor, AMA can be thought of as a significant evolution by providing deeper insights, expanded analysis (including backing services like MQ and Db2), improved visualizations, role-based access control (RBAC), and guided workflows that accelerate decision-making.
AMA enables you to move from understanding your current application landscape to generating actionable modernization plans, all within a unified platform.
Key capabilities of AMA
AMA supports your end-to-end modernization journey, from discovery through execution.
The main capabilities include:
- Scan workloads
- Component and dependency maps
- Modernization plans
- Tool integrations
Scan workloads
You might have experience mapping out your enterprise application estate and struggling with the complexity and scale of potentially hundreds of applications across multiple teams. AMA helps simplify this process by enabling you to understand this system-wide complexity of your application estate. AMA scans applications at scale, helping you discover a comprehensive inventory of your estate, including application code, dependencies, and backing services such as MQ queues and Db2 databases.
Component and dependency visualizations
AMA provides visualization dashboards that map your application components and dependencies. It applies complexity ratings (simple, moderate, complex) and highlights risk areas, cost drivers, and modernization opportunities. These interactive insights help you quickly identify which applications are best suited for different modernization approaches.
Modernization plans
AMA enables you to map technical modernization strategies to business outcomes using the modernization plan. For example, you might choose to prioritize re-platforming a high-cost application to reduce infrastructure spend, while refactoring a customer-facing application to improve performance and user experience.
Based on analysis and planning, AMA generates actionable modernization plans including recommended approaches and guidance. These plans provide you with a clear path forward and serve as the foundation for execution, helping you transition from planning to delivery with confidence.
Tool integrations
AMA integrates with execution tooling intended for developers, including its own IDE plugin called AMA Developer Tools. Learn more in Overview of AMA Developer Tools.
AMA also integrates with the Liberty Replatforming workflow in the IBM Bob Premium Package for Java modernization.
Using AMA in addition to these tools creates a seamless workflow from assessment through to implementation, significantly reducing friction between planning and execution.
These IBM automation tools reduce Java modernization costs by 70%, allowing you to focus more on delivering business value.
Get started with AMA
AMA is part of the JSphere Suite for Java portfolio. Customers using IBM Enterprise Application Runtimes (EAR) or Modernization Runtime Extension for Java (MoRE) can obtain an access key that allows them full access to AMA.
Explore AMA with the Application Modernization Accelerator trial and the AMA documentation. Use the AMA trial to quickly scan your application estate.
Conclusion
Application modernization is a complex journey. With the right tools, though, it becomes manageable and strategic. AMA provides you with a structured, insight-driven approach that helps your organization move from uncertainty to action, accelerating your path toward modern, cloud-ready applications.