Golden Path Digital has launched AS/Forward, an intelligence and automated transpilation platform designed to address the critical workforce shortage threatening IBM i systems that power global commerce. The platform provides a secure, high-speed bridge for organizations transitioning away from legacy dependencies without disrupting core business operations.
The IBM i platform, formerly known as AS/400, serves as the backbone for mission-critical operations in banking, logistics, and manufacturing, handling trillions of dollars in transactions daily. However, the ecosystem faces a systemic threat as the average age of RPG developers reaches 55 or older, creating what the industry calls the Workforce Cliff. As this veteran workforce retires, companies risk losing the tribal knowledge required to maintain and evolve these complex systems that have been modified thousands of times over thirty years, often without updated documentation.
Unlike traditional lift-and-shift tools that merely move technical debt, AS/Forward emphasizes Codebase Clarity as the foundational phase of modernization. Before transpiling code, the system functions as a comprehensive intelligence engine performing deep-tissue dependency mapping and impact analysis, uncovering hidden relationships within codebases that may have been forgotten over decades. The platform generates automated, natural-language documentation and audit-ready descriptions of business logic, providing IT leadership with transparency to make data-driven decisions.
A hallmark of the technology is its ability to convert legacy RPG into modern, industry-standard programming languages including Python, Java, Node.js, JavaScript, C#, .NET, and more. This multi-language flexibility allows organizations to break their reliance on dwindling RPG specialists and hire from global talent pools skilled in modern web and cloud frameworks. The shift enables integration with modern DevOps practices, cloud-native architectures, and AI-driven development workflows, creating agile IT environments capable of responding to market changes in days rather than months.
The platform provides an incremental de-risking approach rather than Big Bang modernization that has plagued the industry with five-year, multi-million dollar failures. The framework enables program-by-program migration, allowing organizations to move at their own pace and validate individual workflows in production-like environments before fully decommissioning legacy components. This reduces business interruption risk to near zero while providing a clear path to full modernization.
Financial benefits are transformative, with AS/Forward typically delivering cost reductions of 10x to 50x compared to traditional consulting models that rely on manual code rewrites and cost between 5 million and 20 million dollars per project. While manual rearchitecting often requires 5-to-7-year commitments, organizations using the platform can achieve modernization within 12- to 24-month timelines, allowing enterprises to realize return on investment within the same budget cycles in which projects were initiated.
To meet stringent requirements of banking, insurance, and healthcare sectors, the architecture is designed to be completely provider-agnostic. 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. The platform does not require an external internet connection to function, protecting enterprise intellectual property from external exposure.
AS/Forward represents a paradigm shift in enterprise approach to IBM i legacy systems, moving the industry away from high-stakes, multi-year gambles toward strategic control and operational clarity. As the window for controlled transition closes due to the aging workforce, the platform provides tools and roadmap necessary to secure operational future for the next generation. More information about the company is available at https://goldenpathdigital.com.
