For many organizations, legacy systems are weighing them down, preventing innovation. Which has always been an issue. But the costs of this have never been more material.

That’s because we’re at an inflection point. The opportunities AI and automation are beginning to unlock for savvy organizations are considerable (and growing.) And because these systems only get better as they learn, there is a high likelihood of compounding gains for the companies that can get out of their own way (or rather, out of the way of their legacy systems.)

Simply put, modernization is now a must-have strategic requirement.

Assuming you agree, the question becomes which ecosystem to adopt. In this article we make the case for why the Google application modernization stack is a smart one, and why Manifold’s delivery precision can help you take advantage of it.

‍

The Google Application Development Ecosystem

Google’s application modernization stack was purpose-built to give enterprises a faster, safer route to modernization.

What makes Google’s ecosystem compelling isn’t just individual tools. It’s the seamless, AI-ready infrastructure. It includes cloud, database, AI, and developer tooling in a single environment. The platform includes:

• Managed Compute: GKE Autopilot for hands-off Kubernetes and Cloud Run for serverless compute.
• Multi-modal Databases: AlloyDB (PostgreSQL compatible with vector search), Cloud SQL, and offerings like Spanner and Bigtable give you flexible options for OLTP, analytics, and AI-ready storage.
• AI Lifecycle Tools: Vertex AI spans data prep, model development, deployment, and monitoring.
• AI Coding Productivity: Gemini Code Assist, delivers real-time code suggestions, generation, debugging help, and even unit test generation.

The platform has a fantastic reputation. Gartner named Google Cloud a leader in their 2025 Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, ranking it furthest for “completeness of vision.” And Forrester named it a Leader tied for the top score in their Forrester Wave for AI/ML Platforms. Forrester’s TEI study also found that organizations deploying Google Cloud Workstations realized an ROI of 293%.
‍

Manifold’s App Dev Specialization

As a Google partner, Manifold gives your company the ability to put these tools into practice. We can help migrate workloads, modernize applications, and prepare you to fully take advantage of AI. We approach modernization engagements through three interlocking plays:

‍‍

‍

Migrate:

The first step is to get a solid foundation in place. That primarily involves moving workloads and databases into Google Cloud. Doing so first reduces operating costs, improves performance, and creates a foundation for the AI adoption work to come.

Depending on the size of organization, this can happen rather quickly. For example, we rebuilt PowerNotes’ infrastructure on Google Cloud in only 22 days, replacing manual deployments with CI/CD, improving scalability, and accelerating developer velocity.
‍

Modernize:

Once workloads are migrated, we refactor and/or re-platform legacy applications into modular, cloud-native services. The work involved depends on the applications in question, but typically includes things like breaking monoliths into micro-services, deploying CI/CD pipelines, and implementing data abstraction layers.

Doing all this helps shrink development cycles. It can also sometimes improve security through automation, and often gives teams more agility to launch features faster going forward.

We did this recently for a medical supplies company to help them modernize their patient portal as a Single Page App with an aggregation API. This work helped them make the application faster, more scalable, and more secure. And we were abel to do so without having to touch the back-end.
‍

Transform:

The final play is about taking the advantages the platform gives you and fully capitalizing on them. This means designing new applications to augment existing workflows or create new solutions for internal teams or customers. And of course, taking advantage of automation, generative AI, and agentic processes.

For example, we helped a large consulting company build a “workforce shaping” tool, integrating HR and labor data with simulation models to help organizations forecast the impact of automation and re-skilling their labor forces. This project would have been impossible had the first two steps not been in place.
‍

The App Dev Roadmap

The start of app dev modernization engagements typically follow the following progression:

• Modernization Blueprint: map workloads, define opportunities, and build the business case.
• Lift + Transform: migrate workloads and stabilize on Google Cloud.
• Pilot + Support: launch next-gen app pilots with CI/CD, micro-services, and AI integration .

This crawl / walk / run model keeps risk low while proving value at each step.
‍

Start Your App Dev Modernization Journey

Modern applications are no longer “nice to have.” It’s imperative that organizations modernize to unlock the unique capabilities that are rapidly emerging.

Google Cloud is a fantastic choice for organizations ready to make this transition. And Manifold’s Google App Dev Specialization can help make it happen.

‍

‍