At Pega Cloud Summit 2026, the closing session of Day 1 brought a refreshingly practical perspective to the modernization conversation. Rather than grand architectural visions, Stu Smith (Client Value & Modernization Specialist) and Anil Gokhale (Director of Modernization Technology and Innovation), introduced by host Ivan Anikanov (Technical Solutions Director, EMEA Consulting), walked the audience through a grounded, tool-supported approach to modernizing heritage Pega applications — step by step, microjourney by microjourney.
You can watch the full recording here.
It's Not About the Technology — It's About the Outcomes
Stu Smith opened with a memorable framing: citing James Watt's horsepower analogy, he reminded the audience that the value of any technology lies not in the technology itself but in what it delivers. For Pega customers, this means shifting the conversation from platform capabilities to business outcomes — conversational APIs, 24/7 self-service access, and measurable value for clients who may not yet be getting the full return on their Pega investment.
The mission, as Stu put it, is straightforward: move clients to the best of Pega. And crucially, that journey begins with a single non-negotiable first step — migrating to Pega‑as‑a‑Service. In his words, you simply cannot be modern if you are not on Pega‑as‑a‑Service.
Three Lenses, One Roadmap
Modernization at Pega is assessed through three lenses: Business, Operations, and Technology. This multi-dimensional view deliberately moves away from technically-led roadmaps toward outcome-led ones — a distinction Stu highlighted as fundamental to how the team engages with clients.
The broader modernization path follows three phases: first, migrate to Pega‑as‑a‑Service; second, modernize the user experience and operational best practices, including DevOps adoption; and third, embrace the latest GenAI and agent capabilities. Importantly, a poll conducted live during the session showed that 83% of attendees defined heritage modernization as evolving or reimagining their existing application — not rebuilding it from scratch. That distinction matters enormously in how teams plan and resource their modernization efforts.
The Application Signature Tool: Your Flux Capacitor to Blueprint
The most hands-on portion of the session came from Anil Gokhale, who introduced and demonstrated the Application Signature Tool — available as a free download from the Pega Marketplace. Anil described it memorably as "the flux capacitor to Blueprint": its purpose is application discovery, not automation.
Traditionally, the output of a heritage application discovery exercise was a set of screenshots in a PowerPoint deck. The Application Signature Tool changes that entirely. You download and import the ruleset into your existing Pega environment, run the discovery process, and download a .pegassign file. Upload that file to Blueprint, and within moments, AI identifies your application's functional purpose, work types, data objects, and personas — giving your team a factual, visual starting point rather than undocumented tribal knowledge.
A few important clarifications surfaced during the Q&A:
- The tool is Pega-specific — it understands Pega application constructs in ways that generic tools like AWS Transform or Google Marketplace offerings do not.
- It focuses on case lifecycle discovery and does not extract business rules or custom stored procedures; the intent is to use a built-on approach to maximize reuse of existing logic.
- Discovery can happen on-premises — the tool is not restricted to Pega Cloud environments.
- It works across all built-on layers, identifying all work types that are actively resolving work.
Renovate, Don't Rebuild: The Microjourney Approach
Anil's advice for what comes after discovery was equally practical: do not boil the ocean. Instead, select a microjourney that can be delivered to production in 8 to 10 weeks. The analogy he used was renovating a kitchen — you don't rip out the plumbing if the hot and cold water are working fine. You focus on what matters most and deliver value incrementally.
The technical approach recommended is a built-on strategy: upgrade to the latest Pega Infinity release, bring the modernized application as a new built-on layer on top of the existing heritage application, and once modernization is complete, decommission the legacy UI-Kit layer. Blueprint's AI assistant is available on each screen throughout this process, providing contextual guidance at every step.
Join the Conversation
Are you beginning a modernization journey with a heritage Pega application, or exploring how the Application Signature Tool could give you a head start? We'd love to hear from you.
Join the Pega‑as‑a‑Service Expert Circle on the Pega Community to access recordings, webinars, and peer discussions on cloud and modernization. Head to the Q&A discussion thread for this session and post your questions — the team will be happy to follow up. For modernization-specific enquiries, reach the team directly at [email protected].
