Accelerate application maintenance and upgrades with generative AI (DOP209)

Here is a detailed summary of the video transcription in markdown format, broken into sections for better readability:

Overview

  • The session aims to discuss how AWS is looking to accelerate application maintenance and upgrades using Amazon Q.
  • The speakers include Adani (Principal Specialist, AWS), Amber Bird (AVP Engineering, Canada Life), and Eliot Dio (Product Owner, Amazon Q).

Understanding Application Layers and Maintenance

  • Applications can be divided into four layers: infrastructure, operating system, frameworks/programming languages, and application code.
  • Upgrades and maintenance are handled differently for each layer, with varying frequency and complexity.
  • Infrastructure and OS layers have more automated update processes, while framework and application code layers require more manual effort.
  • Delaying maintenance can lead to a larger modernization project down the line.

Current Practices for Application Maintenance

  • Developers use a mix of automation and manual work to handle application maintenance and upgrades.
  • Automation is used for major framework/dependency upgrades, while manual work is required for deprecated code, adding unit tests, and documentation.
  • A typical Java 8 to Java 17 upgrade workflow involves automated scripting, manual changes, compilation, testing, and a repetitive cycle of fixing issues.

Introducing Amazon Q Code Transformation

  • Amazon Q Code Transformation aims to accelerate this upgrade process by leveraging generative AI.
  • It analyzes the project, applies the necessary changes, compiles, tests, and provides a transformation summary with details on the changes made.
  • The solution is not a "magic button" that completes the entire upgrade, but rather a tool to accelerate the process and reduce manual effort.

Canada Life's Experience with Amazon Q

  • Canada Life faced stability issues with its legacy platforms and decided to undergo an application modernization project, with a budget of $5 million.
  • The initial plan to lift-and-shift the APIs to the cloud was estimated to take until the end of 2025 and increase costs by 50%.
  • Canada Life partnered with AWS and ran a pilot to evaluate how Amazon Q could help speed up the Java 8 to Java 17 upgrade process.
  • The pilot resulted in an average of 40% productivity improvement across the three APIs tested, with individual improvements ranging from 30% to 50%.
  • Canada Life plans to scale the adoption of Amazon Q for its API modernization initiatives and integrate it into their software development lifecycle.

Upcoming Improvements to Amazon Q

  • Quality Improvements:

    • Enhancements to the debug phase, including a multi-error context, use of multiple tools, and inter-iteration memory for better solutions.
    • Resulted in an 85% improvement in debugging performance compared to the previous single-error approach.
  • Expanded Use Cases:

    • Support for step-by-step diffs, allowing developers to review changes incrementally.
    • Ability to upgrade libraries and frameworks for applications already on Java 17.
  • Automation and Customization:

    • Command-line interface (CLI) for automating application transformations at scale.
    • Support for defining custom transformations to handle first-party code and unblock the core Amazon Q transformation.

Getting Started with Amazon Q

  • Developers can evaluate the transform for Java applications today to jump-start their upgrades, with expected productivity gains of 30-40%.
  • It's important to consider Amazon Q as part of a planned maintenance and upgrade cycle, not as a "magic wand" solution.
  • Leveraging Amazon Q across the software development lifecycle, not just for maintenance and modernization, can further enhance productivity.

Your Digital Journey deserves a great story.

Build one with us.

Cookies Icon

These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with this website and allow us to remember you. We use this information to improve and customize your browsing experience, as well as for analytics.

If you decline, your information won’t be tracked when you visit this website. A single cookie will be used in your browser to remember your preference.

Talk to us