Golden Path Digital has launched AS/Forward, an automated transpilation platform designed to address the critical workforce shortage facing the IBM i community by migrating legacy RPG code to modern programming languages. The platform represents a strategic response to what the company calls the "Workforce Cliff," where the average age of RPG developers has reached 55 or older, threatening the maintenance of systems that power global commerce in banking, logistics, and manufacturing.
The platform's approach begins with what Golden Path Digital terms "Codebase Clarity," functioning as an intelligence engine that performs deep dependency mapping and impact analysis before any code migration occurs. This initial phase generates automated, natural-language documentation that translates complex legacy systems into understandable business logic, providing IT leadership with unprecedented visibility into their technology estate. This transparency enables data-driven decision-making for organizations whose systems have been modified thousands of times over decades, often without updated documentation.
A key capability of AS/Forward is its ability to convert legacy RPG into multiple modern programming languages including Python, Java, Node.js, JavaScript, C#, and .NET. This multi-language support allows organizations to break their dependence on scarce RPG specialists and access global talent pools skilled in contemporary frameworks. The migration enables integration with modern DevOps practices, cloud-native architectures, and AI-driven workflows, creating more agile IT environments capable of responding to market changes rapidly.
The platform employs an incremental modernization approach that contrasts with traditional "Big Bang" projects that have historically failed after years of effort and millions in investment. Instead of total system replacement, AS/Forward enables program-by-program migration, allowing organizations to validate individual workflows in production-like environments before decommissioning legacy components. This methodology reduces business interruption risk while providing a measurable path to full modernization.
Financially, the automated approach delivers significant advantages over traditional consulting models. While manual rewrites typically cost between $5 million and $20 million per project, AS/Forward achieves cost reductions of 10x to 50x. Timeline improvements are equally dramatic, with organizations completing modernization within 12 to 24 months compared to the 5-to-7-year commitments required for manual rearchitecting. This accelerated timeline allows enterprises to realize return on investment within the same budget cycles in which projects are initiated.
For regulated industries like banking, insurance, and healthcare, the platform offers sovereignty and security through provider-agnostic architecture. Organizations can choose to run the engine locally via Ollama or within secure private cloud environments like AWS Bedrock, ensuring sensitive proprietary logic and customer data never leave client firewalls. This design maintains local control over migration processes while protecting intellectual property from external exposure.
The platform's emergence comes as the window for controlled transition narrows due to the aging RPG developer workforce. By providing tools that preserve decades of institutional logic while enabling transition to modern architectures, AS/Forward aims to secure the operational future of enterprises that rely on IBM i systems. The technology represents a shift from high-risk modernization gambles toward strategic control and operational clarity for organizations whose legacy systems handle trillions of dollars in daily transactions.
