Most modernization roadmaps start as interviews with the architects who already think they know the codebase. The codebase tells a different story. Compass runs five assessment layers across every application in the portfolio (static complexity, architectural coupling, test verifiability, change risk, AI readiness), quantifies the tech debt in dollars per sprint, and produces a sequenced roadmap built from what the code actually says.
Two to three weeks. Fixed fee. The output is a technical artifact your architects act on Monday morning, not a slide deck the leadership team forgets by the next quarter.
70-80% of modernization programs fail to meet objectives. The failure mode is almost always the same. Teams start converting services before understanding the dependencies, the hidden business logic, the architectural coupling that turns a 3-month migration into a 14-month project.
The assessment phase gets compressed because "we already know our codebase." You don't. Nobody does. The knowledge lives in tribal memory, retirement-age developers, and code comments from 2014.
of modernization programs fail to meet objectives
of cloud migration initiatives exceed budget, miss timelines, or fail to deliver expected outcomes
of IT budgets consumed by technical debt before any new investment begins
Compass doesn't give you a traffic light matrix. It gives you five layers of analysis per application, each one designed to answer a specific question your leadership team is asking. The output is structured so architects can plan, finance can budget, and leadership can sequence the work.
A static analysis tool gives you a code-quality report. A security scanner gives you a CVE list. An architecture review gives you a slide deck. None of those is a decision artefact. Compass combines the five layers into one structured output your CTO uses to prioritize, your CFO uses to budget, and your architects extend on Monday morning. That is the part you cannot stitch together from off-the-shelf tools in 2-3 weeks without a team that has done it before.
Static complexity, coupling, test verifiability, change risk, AI readiness. Structured data your architects can query, filter, and prioritize from.
Not a vague "high/medium/low." A number per sprint, per service. The figure that turns a technical conversation into a business case your CFO can act on.
Which services are ready for agentic tooling now, which need foundation work first, which should be retired. The map that tells you where AI will actually help and where it'll compound risk.
Every service-to-service connection, every shared database, every synchronous call chain. The map that prevents the "we didn't know these were connected" surprise at week 8 of the program.
What to modernize first, what to batch, what to leave alone. Priority driven by business value, change risk, and AI readiness. Not gut feel.
Tech debt cost, modernization investment, projected savings at 12, 24, and 36 months. Written for leadership, not for architects.
Compass is designed as the starting point, not a standalone assessment. The five-layer analysis produces the exact inputs Evolve needs to start modernizing on day one: which services to touch first, how coupled they are, and whether they're ready for AI agents.
You can run Compass without committing to Evolve. The assessment has standalone value. It answers questions your team has been debating for months with actual data. But if you do move to Evolve, Compass eliminates the discovery phase that typically adds 4-6 weeks to the front of every modernization program.
You've been told modernization will take 18 months and $5M but nobody can explain exactly where the complexity sits.
You have AI tools deployed on your codebase but you're not sure they're operating on the right services first.
Your tech debt conversations stay qualitative because nobody has put a dollar figure on the cost per sprint.
You're preparing a business case for modernization and need data that finance and leadership can act on, not architecture diagrams.
You've had a modernization program stall or fail and need to understand why before committing budget again.
Your COBOL or mainframe team is approaching retirement and you need to know the real scope of what needs to move.
The first thing we deliver isn't code. It's the picture of your codebase that nobody else has built. Every modernization decision after that is better because of it.
A leading premium wildlife stock footage platform built agentic AI inside their content pipeline with the orchestration layer in their AWS account.
Read use case →A regional agricultural cooperative in the U.S. Midwest deployed production AI with the controls documented and the platform running in their account.
Read use case →Award-winning LMS provider for enterprises and mid-size organizations modernized a regulated edtech platform with delivery the C-Suite could brief the board on.
Read use case →One of the largest cinema networks in the U.S. integrated AI on Connect with per-tool allow-lists and audit trails ready for live regulator review.
Read use case →SMS campaign automation platform for e-commerce and restaurant brands shipped agentic AI on the data layer with the orchestration layer running inside their AWS account.
Read use case →Your codebase. Five assessment layers. Tech debt in dollars. In 2-3 weeks. Your first conversation is with the engineer who'd run the engagement. Not a sales exec.
Talk to an Engineer →90 minutes. Free. Compass running on a real codebase. Engineers run it. You walk away with a preliminary assessment and enough data to decide.
Book the Compass Workshop →AWS Premier Tier Services Partner
Active Competencies and Service Delivery Programs relevant to this offering.