CLIENT WORK

ColdFusion Modernization Case Studies

Three real engagements. Three production systems that had to stay live throughout. Here's what we found, what we delivered, and what changed.

eLearning United Kingdom Delivered

Accessibility Compliance, Modern UI, and Full Infrastructure Migration — in Two Weeks

A UK eLearning provider faced a regulatory WCAG 2.1 AA deadline with no budget for a redesign. We delivered accessibility compliance, a fully modernised interface, and a complete Lucee & Linux migration — simultaneously, in two weeks, at a fraction of traditional cost.

The Challenge

The client ran a course delivery platform on Adobe ColdFusion 2018 on Windows Server — a system built over nearly a decade with no formal accessibility review. A regulatory deadline required WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, and the existing interfaces failed on contrast ratios, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility throughout.

There was zero budget for a dedicated UX redesign. At the same time, infrastructure costs had grown disproportionately — Adobe licensing and Windows hosting were consuming budget that offered no return. The business needed cost relief, not just compliance.

We identified the opportunity to address both simultaneously. By leveraging AI-assisted UI generation and pairing it with the Lucee & Linux migration already in scope, we delivered a modern, accessible interface without a separate design engagement — and eliminated the licensing overhead in the same project.

What We Delivered
WCAG 2.1 AA Audit & Remediation UI Modernization AI-Assisted Redesign Lucee & Linux Migration Performance Optimization Cost Optimization
"We used AI tooling to modernise the UI at a fraction of the traditional cost — delivering a fully accessible, responsive interface without the agency price tag. The client didn't need to choose between compliance and cost reduction. We delivered both."
Key Outcomes
60% reduction in monthly infrastructure & licensing costs
2 wks from kick-off to live deployment
6 mo to full ROI on total upgrade investment
AA WCAG 2.1 compliance achieved at launch
Social Impact United States Delivered

From Internal ColdFusion Platform to Multi-Tenant SaaS — Without Disrupting a Single Active Client

A European social impact organisation needed to evolve their grant management platform into a scalable SaaS product. We assessed, migrated, re-architected, and deployed to cloud — reducing infrastructure cost despite tripling capacity, with zero disruption to live clients throughout.

The Challenge

The platform managed grant applications, impact reporting, and compliance workflows for a growing roster of NGO and public sector clients. Built on ColdFusion and hosted on a single fixed server, it was approaching its limits — response times were degrading under load, and onboarding each new client required manual server provisioning with no elasticity.

The business goal was clear: become a multi-tenant SaaS provider. The engineering constraint was equally clear: the system had to stay live throughout every phase. Active reporting cycles and grant deadlines meant there was no viable window for downtime.

We started with a full system assessment and SaaS readiness analysis, delivered as a structured report with implementation estimate. This gave the client confidence in both the technical path and the commercial case before a single line of code changed. The migration to AWS, with Lucee replacing Adobe ColdFusion, was executed in phases — each validated before the next began.

What We Delivered
System Assessment & SaaS Readiness Report Lucee Migration Cloud Migration (AWS) Multi-Tenant Architecture Performance & Scaling Security Hardening Cost Optimization
"On-demand auto-scaling meant the infrastructure bill actually fell — even as the platform's capacity tripled. The client moved from a fixed cost they couldn't justify to a variable cost that scaled with revenue."
Key Outcomes
35% infrastructure cost reduction despite 3× capacity increase
10× peak traffic capacity via on-demand auto-scaling
0 client disruptions across the full migration
SaaS multi-tenant product launched on schedule
Manufacturing Europe Delivered

ERP Security Hardening, Lucee Migration, and Full Containerization — Zero Downtime, Zero Surprises

A European manufacturer's ERP — running production scheduling, inventory, and supplier workflows 24/7 — was flagged as high-risk by an external security audit. We hardened, migrated, and containerized it without a single minute of production downtime, and caught vulnerabilities the external audit missed.

The Challenge

The ERP system was running on an outdated version of Adobe ColdFusion on Windows Server — years behind on security patches and carrying a backlog of known CVEs. A third-party security audit had flagged the platform as high-risk and recommended immediate remediation. The business had no tolerance for downtime: production scheduling ran continuously and any interruption carried direct financial and operational consequences.

During our initial code review — before any production changes — we identified scope leak vulnerabilities in the legacy CFML codebase that the external audit had not found. Improperly scoped variables were exposing sensitive production and supplier data across request contexts. These were caught in development and patched before they could become an incident.

Beyond security, we identified the opportunity to modernize the deployment architecture. Containerizing the application with Docker and orchestrating it with Kubernetes gave the client a platform they could scale, redeploy, and roll back — capabilities the legacy Windows setup simply couldn't offer.

What We Delivered
Security Hardening Scope Leak Identification & Remediation Legacy System Stabilization Lucee & Linux Migration Docker Containerization Kubernetes Orchestration Performance & Scaling
"The scope leaks we found in the code review weren't in the third-party audit report. Catching them before production — rather than after an incident — was the most valuable outcome of the engagement. The client never knew they existed until we showed them."
Key Outcomes
0 minutes of production downtime during migration
7 critical CVEs remediated across CF & OS layer
4 scope leak vectors patched before production
K8s containerized & orchestrated, ready to auto-scale
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