AWS sics Transform on technology debt

AWS launched AWS Transform continuous modernization in private preview. The capability, part of the Transform suite code modernization tools, will be worth watching as enterprises wrestle with technology debt.

Overall, the latest effort for AWS Transform is perhaps the most interesting idea from AWS Summit 2026 in New York. Transform continuous moderinization is a service designed to migrate legacy infrastructure such as mainframes and .NET to modern code.

Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AWS Agentic AI, said during is AWS Summit:

"The outcome we are after is a code base that stays modern on its own continuously last year we introduced AWS Transform, so you could put agents to work, so that they can migrate legacy systems and modernize your code bases."

Transform will continually analyze code for debt and required migrations and prioritizes them and remediates them over time.

"We're adding continuous modernization, so we transform proactively keep your code bases modern and well documented, so you can unlock engineering capacity and reduce maintenance," said Chief AI and Technology Officer Matt Wood. "Addressing tech debt in waves is like taking out a loan to pay off your credit card. Instead, you can just run this modernization process continuously."

Transform’s continual modernization is based on Amazon's internal ASBX (Amazon Software Builder Experience) and could resonate with enterprises that have significant tech debt (in other words all of them).

AWS Transform will surface AWS-driven changes, but also accept other sources of change demands including internal standards, security migrations and platform migrations.

The goal is to earn trust, tie AWS Transform to automated release pipelines and operate continuously.

In a blog post, AWS said:

“This new capability within AWS Transform automatically scans your code repositories against configurable baselines and generates findings in hours, not weeks. Out of the box, AWS Transform – continuous modernization includes policies for detecting end of life dependencies, deprecated frameworks, and other common sources of technical debt. You can also extend these with your own remediation patterns specific to your organization, including approved libraries, internal coding standards, or tech debt policies your platform team already enforces. For example, if your team has deprecated an internal library or prefers a particular logging pattern, you can codify that as a policy and run it across all your repositories continuously.”

Lauren Woods, CIO of Southwest Airlines, said well publicized outages led to a broad modernization effort powered by AWS. Woods said:

"We made deliberate shifts by modernizing our IT footprint, simplifying complexity, and building an environment where our teams can move faster with confidence."

Southwest is using Amazon Kiro, Amazon Quick and the broader portfolio to "move a helluva lot faster." Woods didn't call out Transform specifically, but indicated agentic AI would be used in modernization efforts.

Woods said Southwest is modernizing platforms for crew planning for pilots and flight attendants. "We are building a more reliable foundation across the airline," said Woods, who said the company is trying to modernize and transform at the same time.