Rocket Software Named as a Challenger in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Technical Debt Management Tools

Technical debt costs enterprises an estimated US$1.52 trillion annually in lost productivity and increased operational risk

Rocket's technical debt management solutions span six products covering architecture, code, runtime, observability, and security layers

Rocket Software enables safe, incremental modernisation in place and in hybrid cloud environments, helping enterprises reduce risk, maintain uptime, and manage growing complexity in mission-critical environments

Rocket Software, a global technology leader in modernisation software, has been named as a Challenger in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Technical Debt Management Tools. Rocket technical debt management solutions are a unified portfolio of solutions designed to help enterprises identify, prioritise, and remediate technical debt across hybrid IT environments. This portfolio includes Rocket® Enterprise Analyzer, Rocket® COBOL Analyzer, Rocket® TMON® One, Rocket® C/Prof, Rocket® z/Assure® VAP, and supporting modernisation tooling that together provide visibility across architecture, code, runtime, observability and security layers. Unlike point solutions focused on isolated areas of technical debt, Rocket Software helps organisations move from technical debt visibility to actionable remediation across mainframe, distributed, and cloud environments without disruptive rewrites or large-scale replacement projects.

"Technical debt has become one of the biggest obstacles to modernisation for enterprises running complex, mission-critical systems," said Phil Buckellew, President of Infrastructure Modernisation Business Unit at Rocket Software. "Organisations need more than visibility into the problem. They need a practical, lower-risk way to address it. In our view, this recognition from Gartner validates what our customers already know: that Rocket Software delivers a unified, enterprise-grade approach to technical debt management that helps them modernise wherever it makes sense for their business, reduces complexity, and keeps critical operations running without disruption."

Technical Debt Management in the Age of AI 

As enterprises accelerate modernisation initiatives and AI adoption, many are facing growing operational complexity driven by ageing infrastructure, fragmented tooling, skills shortages, and increasing governance requirements. Rocket Software helps customers better understand and manage technical debt across interconnected systems while maintaining operational continuity in complex hybrid environments.

Key capabilities of Rocket technical debt management solutions include:

• Enterprise-wide visibility across architecture, applications, runtime environments, and infrastructure 
• Improved developer productivity through AI-powered code and dependency understanding
• Guided, incremental remediation to reduce modernisation risk 
• Continuous monitoring and management of technical debt over time 
• Enhanced security and compliance visibility across mission-critical systems

Rocket technical debt management solutions are designed for enterprises operating complex hybrid environments where uptime, resiliency, governance, and operational continuity are critical. Through safe, incremental modernisation, Rocket Software helps customers reduce risk, improve visibility, and modernise with less disruption across infrastructure, applications, and operations.

For more information about Rocket Software's modernisation solutions, visit www.rocketsoftware.com.

Gartner clients can access the full report here: https://www.gartner.com/interactive/mq/7884377 

Disclaimer

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Rocket Software

Rocket Software is a global technology leader in modernisation and a partner of choice that empowers the world's leading businesses on their IT and mainframe modernisation journeys, spanning core systems to the cloud. Trusted by over 13,000 customers and 750 partners, and with more than 3,000 global employees, Rocket Software enables customers to maximise their data, applications, and infrastructure to deliver critical services that power our modern world. Rocket Software is a privately held U.S. corporation headquartered in the Boston area with centres of excellence strategically located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Rocket Software is a portfolio company of Bain Capital Private Equity. Follow Rocket Software LinkedIn and X or visit www.RocketSoftware.com.