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How Top Technology Teams Are Modernizing

How top technology teams are modernizing applications in 2026

Application modernization in 2026 isn't one rewrite decision — it's six plays running at once on the same portfolio: where technical debt is blocking delivery, which applications gate the AI roadmap, and how the market's compressed buying window changes the sequencing call. Discover the six plays the teams pulling ahead are running today.

plays preview

How the top teams are running modernization in 2026

The full brief unpacks six plays — each paired with quick actions you and your team can use to put them to work today. Here's a preview of three.

Play 01

Technical debt is consuming delivery capacity

21–40% of IT spend is technical debt
Nearly 60% of technology leaders believe a further 21–50% of value is still trapped in their current tech, data, and people. The backlog compounds while it waits to be funded.
Deloitte 2026 · CAST Software 2025

Play 02

Legacy applications are the structural gate on AI enablement, not just a cost center

The AI roadmap has nowhere to land
TUndocumented business logic and tightly-coupled architectures are materially harder to connect to GenAI and agentic workflows than greenfield systems.

Play 03

The application modernization market is in a compressed, time-bound buying window

13.5–14.6% CAGR through 2032
This isn't a slow-burning category. The providers and teams positioned before the window closes get first pick of the largest engagements.
MarketsandMarkets 2025 · 360iResearch 2025

Read the remaining 3 plays ➜

What's inside

Six plays and a worksheet built for your next technology leadership meeting

Each play comes with concrete actions you can put to work, plus a one-page worksheet designed to bring these plays straight into your team conversations.

Play 01

Technical debt is consuming delivery capacity

21–40% of IT spend is technical debt, and it compounds while it waits to be funded.

Play 02

Legacy applications gate AI enablement

Undocumented business logic blocks GenAI and agentic workflows more than greenfield systems ever did.

Play 03

SaaS sprawl becomes an integration problem

660 apps per large enterprise on average, with $21M wasted annually on unused licenses.

Play 04

A compressed, time-bound buying window

The modernization market is on a 13.5–14.6% CAGR — not a slow-burning category.

Play 05

Seven distinct paths, and picking wrong is the risk

Most portfolios need several modernization paths at once, not one path for everything.

Play 06

AI is collapsing cost and failure rate

Against a 79% historical failure baseline, AI-assisted tooling is measurably changing the odds.

About this outlook

Built from leading research — Deloitte, CAST Software, Zylo, MarketsandMarkets, AWS, and others — these are the six plays CTOs, VPs of Applications, and Enterprise Architects should be running to stay ahead in 2026 and beyond.

Simple, Smart, Reliable delivery for what's next.

Tell us what you're working on, and we'll get in touch.

Discover the six plays
Get the six plays and the worksheet, built for your next leadership meeting.