vFunction CMM is the first continuous modernization solution that enables architects to shift left to find and fix application architectural drift and prevent business catastrophes
Palo Alto, CA – April 4, 2023 — vFunction, the first and only application modernization platform designed specifically for application architects and developers, today announced the availability of vFunction Continuous Modernization Manager (CMM), the first product to continuously monitor, detect, and pinpoint application architecture drift issues before they cause technical debt meltdowns. vFunction CMM enables software architects to shift left to find and fix application architecture anomalies, determine architectural baselines, and set thresholds. vFunction CMM joins vFunction Assessment Hub and vFunction Modernization Hub as the newest product on the company’s Application Modernization Platform.
In addition, the newest release of vFunction Modernization Hub has added advanced collaboration capabilities to enable modernization architects and teams to more easily work together. New analytics also pinpoint the highest technical debt classes to focus the refactoring priorities. vFunction Assessment Hub has added a new Multi-Application Assessment Dashboard to analyze technical debt across a broad application portfolio.
According to a recent Gartner® report “Applications and software engineering leaders must create a continuous modernization culture. Every product or platform team must manage their technical debt, develop a modernization strategy and continuously modernize their products and platforms — including the ecosystem. Teams must ensure that they don’t fall victim to “drift” over time.”
“Application architects today lack the architectural observability, visibility, and tooling to understand, track, and manage architectural technical debt as it develops and grows over time,” said Moti Rafalin, Founder and CEO, vFunction. “vFunction Continuous Modernization Manager allows architects to shift left into the ongoing software development lifecycle from an architectural perspective to manage, monitor, and fix application architecture anomalies on an iterative, continuous basis before they erupt into bigger problems.”
“Continuous modernization is a critical best practice to proactively manage technical debt and track architectural drift,” said Martin Lavigne, R&D Lead, Trend Micro. “We are excited to be working with vFunction to monitor our applications to detect and fix issues before they result in more serious consequences. A key part of a strategic modernization strategy is to not only transform current monoliths but prevent future monoliths from forming.”
Continuously Monitor, Detect, Alert, and Fix Architectural Drift
vFunction Continuous Modernization Manager observes Java and .NET applications and services to first baseline the architecture, set baselines, and monitor for architectural drift and erosion to detect critical architectural anomalies including:
- New Dead Code Found: vFunction will detect new dead code in applications indicating that new, unnecessary code has surfaced in the application or the baseline architecture drifted and existing class or resource dependencies were changed.
- New Service Introduced: Based on the observed baseline service topology, when a new service has been detected vFunction will identify and alert that a new domain or major architectural event has occurred.
- New Common Classes Found: Building a stable, shared common library is a critical modernization best practice to reduce duplicate code and dependencies. Newly identified common classes can be added to a common library to prevent further technical debt from building up.
- Service Exclusivity Dropped: vFunction measures and baselines service exclusivity to determine the percentage of independent classes and resources of a service, alerting when new dependencies are introduced that expand architectural technical debt.
- New High-Debt Classes Identified: vFunction identifies the highest technical debt classes that are the highest contributors to application complexity. A “high-debt” class score is determined by its dependents, dependencies, and size and pinpoints a critical software component that should be refactored or re-architected.
Users will be notified of changes in the architecture through Slack, email, and vFunction Notifications Center. Through vFunction Continuous Modernization Manager, architects will be able to configure schedules for learning, analysis and the option to configure baseline measurements.
Assess Hundreds of Applications and Collaborate on Modernization Projects
The latest release of vFunction Modernization Hub 3.0 enables modernization teams to more effectively collaborate to avoid conflicts and improve clarity, working in parallel on different measurements, and then later merging them into one measurement. A user can protect services they wish to keep unmodified, preventing conflicts when multiple teams are working on the same measurement, especially when adding or removing classes to common areas.
The company also announced the addition of the Multi-Application Assessment Dashboard to vFunction Assessment Hub, to track and compare different parameters for hundreds of applications. Multiple applications can be analyzed at a glance for technical debt, aging frameworks, complexity, state, and additional architectural factors.
Pricing and Availability
vFunction Continuous Modernization Manager is available now from vFunction, AWS Marketplace, and Microsoft Azure Marketplace. It is packaged as a separate solution from vFunction Modernization Hub and Assessment Hub. CMM is priced as a consumption-based annual subscription with promotional pricing available for the next three months starting at $5.50 per class with the ability to true-up for additional class capacity as needed.
Gartner, Every product or platform team must manage their technical debt, develop a modernization strategy and continuously modernize their products and platforms, Stefan Van Der Zijden, Deacon D.K Wan, et al.., 20 July 2022. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved
