The original developer was gone.
The app still had to run.

A professional-services firm ran their entire operation on a custom CakePHP app more than a decade old. PHP 5.6. Hosting contract ending. No one left who had built it.

Every shop they called said the same two things: too old to touch, or quote a rewrite.

They didn't need a rewrite. They needed someone who would take over what they already had, without taking the business down.

What we did

We started with a Legacy Health Check: two weeks, a written report, what's urgent vs what can wait. Then we migrated off the dying host, put the app on modern managed hosting, upgraded the platform, and stood up backups, staging, and git.

Cutover: zero downtime.

Today the app is maintained, documented, and boring — in the best way. Same business logic. Same workflows. A team that actually answers.