How The Hartford jumpstarted .NET modernization with AWS Transform

This post demonstrates how The Hartford used AWS Transform for .NET to kickstart the modernization of their Skylynx application—achieving 30% automated code transformation within weeks of initial adoption and laying the foundation for broader modernization efforts in the future.

Organizations running .NET Framework applications face growing challenges with licensing costs, scalability, innovation, and security. Many of these applications were built in an era when on-premises infrastructure was the standard, but today’s cloud capabilities offer far greater flexibility, cost efficiency, and performance enhancements. By modernizing these applications to run on cross-platform .NET in the cloud, organizations can unlock significant benefits including enhanced agility, improved scalability, and substantial cost savings in their cloud environments.

The Hartford is a leader in property and casualty insurance, group benefits, and mutual funds. For over 200 years, the company has provided people and businesses with the support and protection they need to pursue their unique ambitions, seize opportunity, and prevail through unexpected challenges.

One of Hartford’s applications, the Vendor Management application (Skylynx), is a critical system for claims processing. This application was written in .NET Framework 4.8 as a Model View Controller (MVC) web application that uses Entity Framework 6 for data access. The Hartford recognized the opportunity to optimize its cloud infrastructure and reduce dependencies on Windows Server operating system licensing.

The Hartford partnered with AWS to use agentic AI capabilities of AWS Transform for .NET in porting Skylynx to run on cross-platform .NET. AWS Transform for .NET automatically analyzes .NET codebases, creates transformation plans, and runs transformations by updating NuGet packages, replacing deprecated APIs and porting applications to cross-platform .NET.

You can access AWS Transform for .NET using two experiences – the web experience and the Visual Studio extension. The web experience is ideal for large-scale porting tasks, while the Visual Studio extension brings AI-powered capabilities directly into the developer workflow. Development teams at The Hartford installed the AWS Toolkit with AWS Transform for .NET, a Visual Studio extension, to get AI-powered capabilities directly in their existing development environment, letting developers analyze code and improve performance using familiar workflows. You can install the latest version of AWS Toolkit with AWS Transform and sign-in using the AWS IAM Identity Center credentials provided by your organization. For step-by-step instructions on running AWS Transform for .NET, see Getting started with AWS Transform for .NET.

The Hartford’s Vendor Management application code transformation

The Vendor Management application uses a multi-tiered architecture (Figure 1) that separates concerns and provides efficient data flow and business logic processing. The Presentation Layer uses the ASP.NET MVC pattern to deliver a responsive user interface. This layer handles user authentication and role-based access control, providing dashboards for claims handlers and vendor managers. The architecture separates concerns by abstracting authentication and authorization logic into dedicated services, which are then injected into the controllers. The Service Layer orchestrates complex business workflows for vendor onboarding and claims processing. It implements critical business rules and validation logic, provides API interfaces for external system integration, and manages caching strategies to optimize performance.

The Data Layer forms the foundation of the application’s data management capabilities. It implements the repository pattern for data access abstraction, efficiently managing database connections and query optimization. This layer provides data validation and integrity checks, and implements audit logging and data versioning. The layered architecture enables modular development and simplified maintenance while managing data flow between tiers and the Oracle database to support queries from claims handlers.

Figure 1: Application architecture of Vendor management application

The Hartford’s Vendor Management solution contains 46 files organized across four projects, each serving a specific architectural concern.

Rapid transformation with AI-powered agents

AWS Transform for .NET helps you modernize your service and data layers to transform core business logic. During the transformation process, in the service layer, AWS Transform for .NET transformed synchronous operation patterns to modern async/await implementations, optimizing performance and resource utilization. It automatically identified and updated dependency injection patterns, converting legacy Unity container configurations to Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection. Critical business logic components, including vendor validation, claims processing workflows, and integration service interfaces, were efficiently transformed to cross-platform .NET 8 while preserving business rules and validation logic.

The transformation of ASP.NET MVC 5 views to ASP.NET Core MVC required manual intervention. jQuery-dependent client-side code and WebForms-style controls needed hand-crafted updates to align with modern JavaScript frameworks and patterns. To address these UI modernization challenges, The Hartford implemented a phased approach: They modernized the service and data layers using AWS Transform for .NET and concurrently planned a separate UI modernization initiative using modern front-end frameworks. This strategy allowed them to use the capabilities of AWS Transform for .NET in backend transformation while approaching UI modernization thoughtfully.

Code transformation results

AWS Transform for .NET transformed 30% of the Vendor Management application’s codebase automatically, with AWS Transform for .NET converting 7,870 lines of code from .NET Framework 4.8 to .NET 8 within hours. The solution comprised 46 files across 4 projects. The automated analysis and transformation capabilities of AWS Transform for .NET reduced what would normally be months of manual work to just weeks.

Roadmap ahead

Containerization strategy

As part of their comprehensive modernization strategy, The Hartford is planning to use Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) to host their transformed Vendor Management application in Linux containers. This strategic shift from traditional Windows-based hosting to containerized deployment on Amazon ECS aligns with their cloud-based transformation goals, reduces Windows licensing costs, improves resource utilization through container orchestration, and enhances scalability for varying workload demands. Additionally, Amazon ECS provides streamlined application deployment and management, resulting in reduced operational overhead.

Figure 2 below shows how The Hartford plans to run their modernized Skylynx application runs across two Availability Zones (AZ) for high availability. The Application Load Balancer directs traffic to Amazon ECS tasks running on AWS Fargate in private subnets. Amazon Aurora databases support data persistence in each AZ. Auto Scaling groups automatically adjust capacity based on demand. The symmetrical multi-AZ architecture helps maintain application availability if an AZ becomes unavailable.

Figure 2: Deployment architecture of modernized Vendor management application

A launchpad for enterprise-wide modernization

The successful modernization of the Vendor Management application using AWS Transform for .NET establishes a strong foundation for The Hartford’s digital transformation efforts. The modernized application delivers improved performance as measured by faster response times, and improved user experience, while efficiently managing increased transaction volumes and peak workloads. By integrating with AWS container services, the application uses managed services and automated scaling capabilities, providing better monitoring and observability. This cloud-based approach has also yielded substantial total cost of ownership (TCO) savings through reduced commercial operating system licensing dependencies and streamlined infrastructure management.

Conclusion

“By using generative AI with AWS Transform for .NET, our organization has accelerated our modernization efforts and improved the speed to market of our cloud migration initiatives” explains Gaurav C Patrikar, Director Software Engineering, The Hartford. “It not only helped us speed up legacy code transformation from months to weeks, but also provided our developers with valuable insights and suggestions throughout the process.”

The Hartford’s successful modernization of their Vendor Management application using AWS Transform for .NET demonstrates the significant value of AI-powered modernization services in accelerating digital transformation. By achieving 30% automated code transformation in the initial phase and reducing dependency on commercial licensing, The Hartford has established a blueprint for modernizing its broader application portfolio across multiple business units within the company while realizing substantial operational and cost benefits.

The Hartford’s transformation journey showcases how enterprises can effectively modernize legacy .NET applications while maintaining business continuity. The Hartford’s planned adoption of Amazon ECS exemplifies how organizations can use AWS services to improve cost efficiency and scalability.

To realize the full potential of application modernization, you should look beyond simple lift-and-shift migrations to embrace modern architectures and cloud-based services. AWS can help assess how your company can best use AI-powered services like AWS Transform for .NET to accelerate your modernization journey.

To learn more about modernizing .NET applications and using AI-powered transformation capabilities, visit the User Guide. Start your modernization journey with AWS Transform for .NET today.

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