LegacyLink Mesh: Instant APIs for AS/400, Mainframe, and Obscure ERPs
9/10
Demand Score
ERP projects stall when legacy data and functions can’t be integrated quickly; every month of delay burns budget and erodes business confidence.
8/10
Blue Ocean
Competition Level
$2k-12k
Price/Month
Predicted customer spend
90 days
Time to MVP
Difficulty: Hard
The Problem
Strict staff/user account limits:
Competitor Landscape
- MuleSoft
- Boomi
- Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services
- IBM App Connect
- Azure Data Factory
- UiPath (screen automation)
- Rocket Software/Precisely
Must-Have Features for MVP
Agent/gateway with DB2 journaling CDC and file watchers
3270/5250 screen-to-API virtualization with role-based masking
Schema virtualization with REST/GraphQL endpoints
Event streaming to Kafka/Event Hubs
Data quality rules and lightweight MDM
Prebuilt mappings to Oracle/Dynamics common data models
Deterministic replay environment for integration testing
⚠️ Potential Challenges
- Security approvals for on‑prem gateway
- Performance tuning for high‑volume CDC
- Complex field mapping and data quality issues
- Licensing constraints on legacy systems
Risk Level: Moderate
🎯 Keys to Success
- Time to first useful API from legacy (<2 weeks)
- Stable CDC lag and low error rates
- Successful ERP cutover/migration milestones met
- Reduction in custom integration code maintained
Ready to Build This?
This hard-difficulty project could be your next micro-SaaS success.