Support Delphi applications instead of replacing them

• Documentation Gaps: Knowledge is stuck in the heads of individual developers. An unexpected departure can cost weeks just to fix a small bug.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Old libraries and BDE drivers are no longer maintained. Even if everything runs stably today, new Windows updates or a zero-day exploit can shut down the system.
• Technical Debt: Modules that have grown over years contain outdated structures that slow down changes and cause testing efforts to explode.

For your company, this means that every unplanned outage can directly impact Production, Revenue, or Customer satisfaction.

Missing Documentation & Loss of Knowledge

Many Delphi applications were developed ten or twenty years ago. Often the developers from that time are no longer with the company, and documentation is patchy or can no longer be found. This makes changes to the code risky and expensive. A recent study from 2025 («Software Maintenance Assessment: An Analysis of Determination Factors») confirms that insufficient documentation is one of the central drivers of rising maintenance costs.

Security Risks and Compliance

Older Delphi versions no longer receive security updates. Outdated libraries and components increase the attack surface. Many productive Delphi systems still run on Delphi 7 up to XE2, versions that no longer receive official security updates. They often contain the outdated Borland Database Engine (BDE) or old Indy libraries, which have known weaknesses in authentication and encryption.
An audit can expose security vulnerabilities at any time, jeopardizing ongoing operations.

Know-how Shortages & Economic Risks

Experienced Delphi developers are becoming increasingly rare. When the last experts leave the company, the risk of outages and project delays increases. Studies show that maintenance costs for aging systems rise exponentially when know-how is lost and new developers have to be trained. A Concordia University study also shows that developer departures leave behind so-called “dormant files.” These are code areas without a clear person responsible, which demonstrably lead to higher error rates and significantly more complex maintenance.

Compatibility Problems & Technological Decay

Operating systems, databases, and interfaces continue to evolve. Older Delphi versions like Delphi 7, 2007, or XE releases were developed for operating systems such as Windows XP or Server 2003 and can only run on modern platforms with limitations. New Windows updates, 64-bit environments, or current databases often lead to instability, for example, due to missing Unicode adaptation, outdated drivers, or untested 64-bit builds.
The result is rising maintenance costs and the risk that critical modules suddenly no longer work with new hardware, cloud infrastructures, or current database versions.

Initial Findings:

• These risks are not hypothetical, but real and ongoing.
• A radical replacement (“rewrite”) carries high entry barriers, risks, and costs.
• Maintenance and support by specialists can secure survival in operation while also laying the foundation for future modernization.

An experienced partner for Delphi maintenance not only handles classic bug fixing but also ensures that your application remains future-proof and that all risks are controlled.

Maintenance, Bug Fixing & Incident Management

• Monitoring of critical processes and automated alerts
• Fast bug fixing and regular patches
• Service Level Agreements for guaranteed response times

Code Reviews, Refactoring, and Technical Hygiene

• In-depth analysis of the source code to identify security vulnerabilities and technical debt
• Gradual improvement of the architecture, reduction of dependencies, and increase in code quality
• Use of modern analysis tools and metrics such as cyclomatic complexity or Code Health Scores

Documentation & Knowledge Preservation

• Creation of up-to-date architecture diagrams and function descriptions
• Building a Living Architecture Document that facilitates future adjustments
• Targeted, regular workshops and knowledge transfer for internal teams

Security Review & Protection

• Security Audits: Penetration testing, code vulnerability scans, vulnerability analysis
• Securing database access, interfaces, encryption of sensitive data
• Protection against new threats: Zero-day updates, audit logs, intrusion detection

Gradual Modernization & Integration

• Creating API facades (wrappers) to connect old Delphi modules with modern systems
• Microservice or plugin-based extension of new functionality
• Modular transition to more modern UI frameworks or data access layers
• Planning of replacement modules

Operations & Release Management

• Version control, CI/CD pipelines (where possible)
• Automated testing, regression testing
• Deployment strategies (e.g., Canary Releases, Blue-Green)
  Backups, Disaster Recovery Planning

Not every Delphi application has to be replaced immediately. In many cases, a controlled, modular approach makes sense.