Portfolio Analysis (100+ application -Cloud Readiness with CAST & VFunction

Let’s walk through how CAST and vFunction fit into the cloud + microservices modernization journey when migrating a portfolio of 100 applications (including a legacy lending platform) to Azure Cloud.

🔹 Step 1: Portfolio Assessment (CAST Highlight)

• Use CAST Highlight to do a portfolio-wide scan of 100 applications.

  • Identify cloud readiness, technical debt, and complexity scores.

  • It highlights which apps are “quick wins” (lift & shift, SaaS adoption) vs. “strategic” (re-architect to microservices).

  • For example:

    • Out of 100 apps, maybe 40 can move with re-hosting (IaaS/PaaS).

    • 30 need re-platforming (DB migration, containerization).

    • 30 require deep modernization (legacy monolith → microservices).

👉 CAST = portfolio-level insights, roadmap prioritization, risk/cost estimation.

🔹 Step 2: Deep-Dive on Legacy Lending App (CAST AIP + vFunction)

• Use CAST AIP for detailed static code analysis.

  • Detect code dependencies, dead code, DB complexity, inter-module coupling.

  • Create blueprints of the existing application’s architecture.

• Use vFunction for service extraction:

  • AI-driven runtime + static analysis.

  • Identifies bounded contexts and domain-driven service boundaries.

  • Automates breaking the lending monolith into microservices (e.g., KYC Service, Loan Origination Service, Credit Evaluation Service, Disbursement Service).

👉 vFunction = surgical modernization for complex monoliths.

🔹 Step 3: Roadmap Creation

• Combine CAST (portfolio view) with vFunction (deep dive per app) to build a multi-speed roadmap:

  1. Phase 1 (0–6 months): Quick wins → rehost/replatform apps to Azure AKS, Azure SQL, managed services.

  2. Phase 2 (6–18 months): Modernize high-priority apps (e.g., legacy lending) using vFunction → microservices on AKS + Event Hub + API Management.

  3. Phase 3 (18+ months): Optimize & evolve → introduce AI/agentic AI flows, auto-ML retraining, full DevSecOps automation.

🔹 Step 4: Execution with Azure Cloud

• Azure fitment (guided by CAST insights):

  • Compute: Azure AKS, Azure App Services.

  • Data: Azure SQL MI, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB (depending on workloads).

  • Integration: Azure API Management, Service Bus/Event Hub.

  • Security: Azure AD, Key Vault, Defender for Cloud.

  • Ops: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, App Insights.

• vFunction output microservices → deploy into AKS clusters with Istio/Linkerd service mesh, integrate with Azure DevOps pipelines.

🔹 Step 5: Continuous Compliance & Governance

• CAST AIP runs continuously post-modernization:

  • Ensures code quality, maintainability, security compliance.

• vFunction enables continuous modernization:

  • As lending evolves, new services can be carved out incrementally.

✅ Summary:

• CAST = “Where to start?” (portfolio & deep static analysis)

• vFunction = “How to modernize this app?” (service extraction & runtime analysis)

• Together: You get a strategic portfolio roadmap + tactical modernization execution.

1. CAST Cloud Readiness Score

CAST provides a Cloud Readiness score (0–100) that tells you how ready each application is for cloud migration (IaaS, PaaS, containerized, or SaaS modernization).

It evaluates code and architecture across four major dimensions:

🔹 a) Software Health

• Code quality, modularity, complexity, and technical debt.

• Identifies spaghetti code, high coupling, dead code, or obsolete frameworks.

• Higher maintainability = easier cloud refactor.

🔹 b) Cloud Maturity

• Usage of cloud-incompatible components (e.g., Oracle Forms, Cobol batch jobs, EJBs tightly coupled to app server).

• Detects dependencies on OS, middleware, or hardcoded infra settings.

• Highlights remediation hotspots (e.g., local file I/O → move to blob storage).

🔹 c) Cloud Patterns

• Detects if the app is already following cloud-native design patterns:

  • Stateless services

  • Externalized config

  • REST APIs

  • Event-driven integration

• Helps see if the app is “lift-and-shift ready” vs. “refactor required.”

🔹 d) Risk & Complexity

• Identifies fragile code, dependencies, high-churn areas, unsupported tech versions.

• Higher risk = more effort to migrate.

👉 The score is weighted across these parameters.

• 80–100 = ready for refactor/microservices migration

• 50–79 = needs moderate remediation

• 0–49 = high complexity, needs deeper re-engineering

2. How It Helps in Your Scenario (100 apps portfolio, Azure microservices)

• Portfolio View: CAST scans all 100 apps → provides a heatmap of readiness scores.

• Prioritization:

  • High readiness apps = migrate first (quick wins).

  • Medium readiness = partial refactor (APIs, DB migration).

  • Low readiness (like legacy lending with EJBs/Oracle ExaCC) = candidates for vFunction-driven service extraction.

• Roadmap Creation:

  • CAST highlights dependencies between apps (e.g., Lending app calls Core Banking DB).

  • This tells you which apps must migrate together vs. can be decoupled.

3. Where vFunction Fits

Once CAST identifies low readiness apps with monolith challenges → vFunction is used for:

• Dynamic analysis (runtime + static code) to detect business domains inside the monolith.

• Service candidate extraction (e.g., "KYC Service", "Loan Evaluation Service").

• Continuous evolution of services (tech debt tracker).

✅ In short:

• CAST (early phase – Assess & Plan): Portfolio cloud readiness, app scoring, dependency mapping, quick wins vs. complex apps.

• vFunction (Plan → Modernize phase): Refactor legacy monoliths flagged by CAST into microservices.