Pegasystems AWS Alliance Integrates AI to Convert COBOL Code Into Cloud Applications

Pegasystems AWS Alliance Targets Legacy Modernization With Integrated AI Solution

Pegasystems and Amazon Web Services have forged a strategic partnership to address one of enterprise IT's most persistent challenges: converting decades-old COBOL code into modern cloud applications 1

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. The Pegasystems AWS alliance integrates Pega Blueprint AI directly into AWS Transform, creating an AI-driven modernization capability that promises to accelerate business transformation initiatives while reducing the friction typically associated with mainframe migration projects 2

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Announced at PegaWorld in Las Vegas, this integration addresses a critical bottleneck preventing enterprises from adopting agentic AI systems at scale. "This alliance is important because customers need to advance their businesses...they want to unleash AI on their business processes," said Omri Kessel, AWS general manager for agentic AI modernization. "They want to use that capability, but they can't because their old system doesn't allow them to do that" 1

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How Pega Blueprint AI With AWS Transform Enables Legacy Code Conversion

The technical integration creates a seamless workflow for organizations looking to modernize legacy mainframe applications. AWS Transform serves as the analytical foundation, examining millions of lines of original COBOL source code to perform application discovery and business rules extraction 1

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. The service generates comprehensive documentation capturing time-tested business rules, logic, processes, and data structures embedded within decades of often undocumented legacy systems 2

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Pega Blueprint AI then ingests this AWS Transform output to autonomously generate future-state, cloud-ready application designs without requiring users to leave the AWS Transform interface . The AI-powered design tool combines generative AI with industry best practices to reimagine dated workflows into agile and reliable modern systems. Pega Blueprint AI can also ingest demos, screenshots, BPMN files, and SQL files to preserve critical business context, rules, data models, and integrations during the transformation process 2

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Why Legacy Modernization Matters For Digital Transformation

The challenge of maintaining and updating mainframe applications represents a significant competitive disadvantage for enterprises. Kessel emphasized that companies burdened with legacy IT "baggage" fall behind competitors who have modernized their technology stacks 1

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. Many legacy applications consist of millions of lines of COBOL code developed decades ago by programmers who are no longer available to explain the original specifications or requirements behind the software 1

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While some organizations attempt a "lift and shift" approach by moving legacy applications to cloud platforms, this strategy fails to address the underlying need to modernize business logic and requirements. "What's relevant is to modernize the application," Kessel stated, emphasizing the importance of understanding not just the code but the original intent behind legacy software 1

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Building Cloud-Native Systems For The AI Economy

Pegasystems founder and CEO Alan Trefler positioned the partnership within the broader context of AI adoption during his PegaWorld keynote, "The Business Metamorphosis: Moving From App Rigidity To Business Fluidity." Trefler acknowledged this as "an enormously fraught, enormously confusing, and enormously important time" while cautioning against AI vendors promising unrealistic outcomes 1

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. He highlighted the challenge of rapid turnover in large language models that can disrupt AI agents and noted that while "AI can generate massive, massive, massive amounts of code," organizations need technology to "organize the AI, organize the code, and organize the agents" to achieve predictable outcomes 1

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The integration enables organizations to transform legacy mainframe processes into cloud-native systems capable of supporting enterprise-scale agentic AI deployment. This rapid, intuitive, iterative methodology provides the digital foundation businesses need to compete effectively in the AI economy 2

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. Pega Blueprint AI is now available within AWS Transform at no additional cost to clients, removing a potential financial barrier to adoption 2

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