News

Microsoft Partners with vFunction on New Java Refactoring Service

• By John K. Waters
• April 12, 2022

Makers of the vFunction cloud modernization platform are partnering with the Microsoft Industry Solutions group on a new Java Refactoring Service.

The new service uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically restructure the code in monolithic Java applications without changing their original functionality, transforming them into microservices suitable for Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

With this collaboration, the two companies are providing Azure customers with an end-to-end platform that enables them to modernize hundreds of legacy applications that were previously hampered by risky, manual, or outdated modernization practices. The goal is to "modernize and unlock the full benefits of the cloud, including elasticity, rapid innovation, restored engineering velocity, and reduced technical debt, costs and risks," the companies said.

vFunction is a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of two AI-driven platforms designed to help developers and architects transform complex, monolithic Java applications into microservices designed to deliver a scalable, repeatable factory model that is purpose-built for cloud-native modernization.

The vFunction Modernization Platform (vMP) was designed to provide a single pane of glass that manages and tracks full cloud migration and modernization assessment projects across an enterprise application estate. It comes with a modernization dashboard that manages, tracks, and coordinates the full migration and modernization.

The company bills its vFunction Application Transformation Engine (vAXE) as "the only modernization refactoring solution that utilizes deep domain-driven observability via a passive JVM agent to accurately measure architectural flows, classes, usage, memory, and resources to detect and unearth critical business domain functions buried within a monolith." The vAXE leverages the vMP platform to provide dynamic analysis that enables high degrees of scalability for even “megalith” – large monolithic – applications to untangle complex, old, and dense dependencies for applications of over 10 million lines of code and 1000’s of Java classes.

The company typically serves large enterprises undergoing digital transformations, including such industry verticals as financial services, automotive, telco, media, and government.”

"vFunction’s mission is to accelerate the journey to cloud native architecture and unlock the full benefits of the cloud for customers so that they may lower technical debt, restore engineering velocity, speed innovation, and reduce costs and risks associated with outdated manual processes," said Moti Rafalin, CEO and Co-founder of vFunction, in a statement.

The two companies joined forces to deliver an automated process for modernizing legacy apps that were previously hampered by risky, manual, or outdated modernization practices, they said.

“Together with vFunction, we’re excited to launch this Java Refactoring Service to the market, allowing us to deliver a proven solution designed to modernize our customers’ most important legacy applications,” said Darren Dillon, CTO Azure Cloud & AI at Microsoft, in a statement. “This powerful solution automates and speeds the modernization process, allowing a host of legacy applications to move seamlessly to Microsoft Azure.”