Jonathan Schneider of Moderne: Automating Code Modernization at Enterprise Scale
Jonathan Schneider is the co-founder of Moderne, a company that automatically modernizes source code and infrastructure configurations at massive scale. With deep roots from Netflix and the Spring Team at Pivotal, Jonathan explains how Moderne’s open-source “recipes” upgrade everything from Java and PHP to Terraform and Kubernetes—so teams can focus on building instead of chasing vulnerabilities and deprecations.
Moderne matters because it tackles a problem every growing organization faces: too much code, not enough time. Whether it’s patching security issues across hundreds of repositories or moving from Java 8 to 11 in minutes, Jonathan shows how automation makes modernization practical—and safer—for enterprises.
Key Takeaways from the Episode:
Source-to-source transformation: Moderne literally rewrites code for you—upgrading APIs, fixing vulnerabilities, and applying config changes across thousands of repos.
Open-source recipes: Each “recipe” performs a specific upgrade (e.g., Java 8→11, Kubernetes manifests, Terraform fixes); run one repo or run an entire org.
Scale is the bottleneck: Teams haven’t grown as fast as codebases. One org went from 40 repos to 900 with the same 70 engineers—automation is no longer optional.
Rules-based, not guesswork: Moderne favors formally verifiable, rules-driven refactoring over “AI guesswork” for bulk changes where correctness is critical.
Enterprise-ready from day one: Built with enterprise realities in mind (e.g., SOC 2, network controls), plus a commercial layer for orchestration and change-tracking across 10k+ repos.
Memorable Quote:
I don’t think no code is going to replace development as it exists today… our inputs are always changing.