CAST Highlights/AIP

🔹 CAST Highlight

• Type: SaaS platform (lightweight, faster).

• Purpose: Application portfolio management (APM) and cloud readiness assessment.

• Use case: Gives a high-level view of an organization’s application landscape.

• Capabilities:

  • Cloud readiness assessment (which apps are fit for cloud, refactor, rehost, etc.).

  • Open source risk analysis (licensing, vulnerabilities).

  • Technical debt indicators at the portfolio level.

  • Business impact mapping.

• Typical Audience: CIOs, Enterprise Architects, Portfolio Managers.

• Speed: Can scan thousands of apps in days → more about breadth.

🔹 CAST AIP (Application Intelligence Platform)

• Type: On-premise / hosted solution (deep-dive analysis).

• Purpose: Deep software analysis at code level for critical applications.

• Use case: Provides in-depth, structural code analysis to ensure resilience, performance, and compliance of complex systems.

• Capabilities:

  • Detects architecture flaws, code-level vulnerabilities.

  • Provides software quality dashboards (aligned to ISO 5055, CWE, OWASP, etc.).

  • Tracks technical debt at granular code level.

  • Monitors application health (stability, security, efficiency, maintainability).

• Typical Audience: CTOs, Development Managers, DevSecOps teams.

• Speed: Takes longer since it performs deep static code analysis → more about depth.

⚖️ CAST Highlight vs CAST AIP

Feature	CAST Highlight	CAST AIP
Scope	Portfolio-wide	Application-specific
Depth	High-level indicators	Granular code-level analysis
Deployment	SaaS	On-prem / Hosted
Speed	Days (portfolio scan)	Weeks (per application scan)
Best for	Cloud migration strategy, portfolio rationalization	Critical app modernization, quality & security compliance

✅ In short:

• Use CAST Highlight when you want a portfolio-wide view for decisions like cloud migration or rationalization.

• Use CAST AIP when you need a deep-dive analysis of mission-critical applications for quality, resilience, or compliance.

Which phases it is beig used

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1. Discovery & Assessment Phase

• Objective: Build an inventory of applications, understand current state, and decide cloud strategy.

• Tool Used → CAST Highlight

  • Scan the entire application portfolio (lending, KYC, CRM, core banking, reporting, collections).

  • Output:

    • Cloud readiness score (Rehost, Refactor, Replace, Retire).

    • Technical debt indicators at portfolio level.

    • Business impact mapping (which apps are business-critical).

    • Open source risk analysis (license/security).

  • Outcome: CIO/Enterprise Architect can prioritize:

    • ✅ Which apps to migrate to Azure quickly.

    • ✅ Which legacy apps to retire or replace.Migration heatmap (which apps go first to Azure).Candidates flagged for deep-dive with AIP.

    • ✅ Which critical apps need deeper analysis (→ candidate for AIP).

2. Deep-Dive Application Analysis Phase

• Objective: Modernize mission-critical apps (loan origination, underwriting, fraud detection).

• Tool Used → CAST AIP

  • Run static code analysis on targeted apps.

  • Output:

    • Structural flaws in microservices (circular dependencies, poor layering).

    • Security vulnerabilities (CWE, OWASP).

    • Cloud readiness blockers (hard-coded IPs, monolithic code).

    • Technical debt in hours/$$.

  • Outcome: CTO/Engineering Manager gets a remediation roadmap with code-level tasks before containerization & migration.

3. Migration & Refactoring Phase (Dev Teams / Cloud Architects)

• CAST Highlight: Continues to guide portfolio-level tracking (migration waves, % cloud ready).

• CAST AIP: Used by dev teams to fix code issues → ensures Azure-ready microservices.

• Refactor monolithic lending apps into Spring Boot microservices.

• Containerize apps → Azure AKS with Istio service mesh.

• Integrate with Kafka for event-driven workflows (KYC events, Loan Status events).

• CAST AIP reports embedded in Azure DevOps pipelines:

  • Code quality gates.

  • Security compliance checks.

• CAST Highlight dashboards used by CIO to track migration wave progress.

4. Governance & Compliance Phase (CISO / Risk Teams / CIO)

• CAST Highlight:

  • Tracks open source vulnerabilities across all apps (e.g., KYC using 3rd-party libs).

  • Provides portfolio dashboards for CIO/CTO.

  • Portfolio-level dashboards: “% cloud-ready,” “open-source risks,” “migration status.”

  • Continuous monitoring of SaaS, CRM (Salesforce), ERP integrations.

• CAST AIP:

  • Ensures code compliance to ISO 5055, SEBI, OWASP, GDPR, PCI DSS.

  • Ongoing DevSecOps integration → continuous code quality gates in CI/CD pipelines.

  • Continuous scans as part of CI/CD → ensures compliance with ISO 5055, OWASP, SEBI, GDPR, PCI DSS.

  • Provides ongoing health indicators: Resilience, Security, Maintainability, Efficiency.

• Azure Governance Add-ons:

  • Azure Policy, Azure Blueprint, SailPoint (IAM governance).

🔹 Combined Flow in Digital Lending

1. Portfolio Scan (CAST Highlight)→ Identify that Loan Origination and Fraud Detection are high-risk, business-critical, and need deep modernization.

2. Targeted Deep Analysis (CAST AIP)→ Detect architecture flaws, security issues, and refactoring needs in Loan Origination.

3. Modernization Roadmap

   • Loan Origination → Refactor into Spring Boot microservices + deploy to Azure AKS.

   • Fraud Detection → Isolate as ML-based microservice with Kafka integration.

4. Ongoing Governance

   • CAST Highlight: CIO dashboard → “70% apps cloud-ready, 30% pending refactor.”

   • CAST AIP: Code-level compliance gates in Azure DevOps pipelines.

✅ In summary :

• CIO gets portfolio-level visibility via CAST Highlight.

• CTO & Engineering Managers get code-level actionable tasks via CAST AIP.

• Dev Teams use AIP outputs in CI/CD.

• Risk & Compliance teams rely on Highlight + AIP dashboards for ongoing assurance.

• CAST Highlight = breadth (portfolio-level, fast, cloud readiness).

• CAST AIP = depth (critical apps, code-level modernization, compliance).

• Together, they give a 360° view → from portfolio rationalization → to code-level refactoring.

CAST Highlight (Portfolio-Level, SaaS)

Primary Users:

• CIO / Head of IT Strategy

  • Uses dashboards to decide cloud migration roadmap (Rehost / Refactor / Retire / Replace).

  • Tracks overall progress: % apps cloud-ready, technical debt trend, business risk exposure.

• Enterprise Architect

  • Uses cloud readiness & technical debt indicators to design application portfolio roadmap.

  • Maps applications to business capabilities (e.g., Loan Origination → High business impact).

• Portfolio Managers / Business Unit Heads

  • Get visibility into which apps are costly, risky, or redundant.

  • Use Highlight to plan rationalization (decommission duplicate loan servicing tools, legacy reporting apps).

• Risk & Compliance Officers

  • Use Highlight’s open-source vulnerability & license compliance analysis to track portfolio-wide risks.

CAST AIP (Deep Code-Level, On-Prem/Hosted)

Primary Users:

• CTO / Head of Engineering

  • Uses AIP reports to enforce quality, security, resilience in business-critical apps.

  • Ensures regulatory compliance (SEBI, ISO 5055, OWASP, GDPR, PCI DSS).

• Application Owners / Solution Architects

  • Get detailed refactoring backlogs from AIP (hard-coded dependencies, poor modularization, security gaps).

  • Decide modernization strategy: split into microservices, refactor DB access, containerize for Azure AKS.

• Development Leads & DevSecOps Teams

  • Integrate AIP into Azure DevOps pipelines as quality/security gates.

  • Monitor code quality indicators: Security, Resilience, Maintainability, Efficiency.

  • Fix issues flagged by AIP before deployment to AKS.

• Security Architects / CISO Office

  • Use AIP’s vulnerability & CWE reports to manage secure coding practices.

  • Ensure apps meet continuous compliance before going live.

Quick Comparison by Role

Role	CAST Highlight	CAST AIP
CIO	Portfolio dashboards, migration heatmap	Only summary dashboards (not code-level)
CTO	Portfolio modernization strategy	Code-level modernization, compliance
Enterprise Architect	Capability-to-app mapping, rationalization	Identify architecture flaws in critical apps
App Owners	See migration priority of their app	See detailed remediation backlog
Portfolio Managers	Track portfolio risks & redundancy	Not primary users
Dev Leads / DevSecOps	Not primary users	Daily use – CI/CD quality gates, remediation
Risk & Compliance Teams	Open-source risk & compliance portfolio view	Code compliance (OWASP, ISO, GDPR, PCI)

✅ In summary:

• CAST Highlight = CIO, Enterprise Architect, Portfolio Manager, Compliance (portfolio lens).

• CAST AIP = CTO, App Owners, Dev Leads, Security Teams (deep dive, code lens).