Reasons for Using Alchemy Solutions Legacy Modernization to Move to the .NET Platform

Organizations use the Alchemy Solutions application modernization software for migrating to Windows/.NET for a variety of reasons including:

• The mainframe is consuming too large a proportion of their budget:
  - Business survival or competitiveness threatened.
  - Difficult to respond to market changes or opportunities.
• Their IBM mainframe is old and needs to be replaced. Quoted cost of upgrading is too high so alternatives are being sought.
• They have too many different platforms, usually because of acquisitions, and need to consolidate. .NET is seen as an attractive option for at least some of the applications.
• The mainframe or operating system is being phased out (such as VSE) or has an uncertain future so applications have to be migrated to a different platform.
• They have experimented with J2EE and found that their programmers (particularly those experienced with its legacy systems) have not been productive in the J2EE environment.
• Some applications have already been replaced by packaged software on other platforms, leaving just a few applications on the mainframe - too few to justify its existence.
• They find that hardware and software coming from a single vendor creates limited technological innovation. They desire to use hardware and software from a healthier, more competitive market. This applies to both the developer tools and the program execution environments.

Legacy Modernization

The Alchemy Solutions legacy modernization software products are our NeoKicks, NeoBatch, NeoSort and NeoData products that are designed to speed the application migration process while positioning the applications for future growth. These are built around and tightly integrated with the NetCOBOL compilers from Fujitsu, for which we are the primary distributor. From the proof-of-concept we move to a pilot project in which a selected application is migrated and put into production. Following the successful completion of the pilot, the full application migration is planned and can be performed in-house using our tools or, more commonly, by our consultants or SI (System Integrator) partners. The first step of modernization is automatically part of the process as the NeoKicks and NeoBatch tools position the applications in the .NET environment. There are several advantages to engaging our consultants or partners:

• Your legacy modernization is performed by our migration experts
• You don't have to wait for your staff to learn the details of the new platform before starting your application migration.
• Your programmers can learn the new system while taking control of the application testing - by the time the system is released they are fully up-to-speed.
• Your staff continue to maintain and enhance your systems while the IBM migration work proceeds - you don't have a migrate-or-enhance choice to make.

• CICS to Microsoft's .NET Framework
• MVS and DOS/VSE Batch to Windows
• VSAM Data to SQL Server
• Migrating IDMS, IMS or Adabas Natural Data to SQL Databases

The Alchemy Solutions legacy modernization software products are our NeoKicks, NeoBatch, NeoSort and NeoData products that are designed to speed the application migration process while positioning the applications for future growth. These are built around and tightly integrated with the NetCOBOL compilers from Fujitsu, for which we are the primary distributor. Full details of these products can be found on their product pages. Below are short overviews explaining how each product fits into our legacy modernization solutions.

NeoKicks™
NeoKicks is designed for bringing CICS and batch applications to the .NET environment, providing a similar system architecture while enabling the applications to take maximum advantage of the modern interfaces and technologies provided by the .NET Framework. You can convert BMS maps into ASP.NET Web pages yet preserve mainframe style keyboard input. This often allows companies to transform one of the most inflexible parts of their application architecture to a modern, agile architecture.
NeoKicks integrates with Visual Studio and NetCOBOL for .NET to provide a highly productive maintenance and enhancement environment for CICS and batch applications.

NeoBatch^®
NeoBatch is the long term solution for bringing mainframe JCL to the Windows/.NET environment. It executes JCL under the control of the NeoBatch Job Manager in a manner that is highly compatible with mainframe batch job execution. You can choose to maintain your batch jobs as JCL or have them transformed to Microsoft® JScript® as a route to greater .NET/Windows® operating system integration in the future.
Features such as the NeoBatch catalog manager, support for generation data groups (GDGs), IEBGENR, IBR14, IDCAMS, NeoSort integration for DFSORT® and Syncsort® commands, highly usable console window and mainframe print file support, make NeoBatch one of the best application migration options for the future of your batch jobs.

NeoSort^®
NeoSort is a specially packaged version of Nsort™, the world’s fastest sort program, that integrates with NeoBatch to support IBM® DFSORT® commands within migrated JCL jobs. Because NeoSort takes advantage of all the hardware made available to it – such as multiple processors, multiple disks, and memory – it can deliver exceptionally fast sorts of even your largest files. With NeoSort you can improve the performance of your batch sort jobs by migrating to the .NET platform.

NeoData™
NeoData migrates VSAM data to Microsoft® SQL Server® without rewriting legacy COBOL code. NeoData provides well-designed tools and tight integration with SQL Server to provide a highly viable route for bringing your VSAM data to a modern SQL database and giving your users more flexible reporting options.

NetCOBOL for .NET
NetCOBOL for .NET provides the foundation for bringing CICS and batch applications to an exciting future. It is tightly integrated with Visual Studio and generates standard, verifiable MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) code so programs can take full advantage of the rich .NET Framework class libraries in a memory-safe manner. The integration with Visual Studio provides a highly productive COBOL development environment.
Features of NetCOBOL for .NET that make the biggest difference for developers coming from mainframes are:

• Immediate help and syntax checking provided by IntelliSense as code is entered
• Powerful interactive debugging enabling quick bug resolution and deeper program understanding
• Fast, visual interface design with Visual Studio's designers
• Greatly increased programming power with the thousands of classes and methods available in the .NET Framework
• Ability to take advantage of OO programming techniques

COBOL Modernization Services

Often organizations seek assistance in making the move from mainframe to Windows server as the application migration part of the effort is seen as a one-time process, requiring specialist skills that are not required for the organization's regular IT work.

Alchemy Solutions provides training; consulting and mentoring services in the area of legacy migrations/modernizations that can help start larger projects or perform smaller application migration projects. Alchemy Solutions also partners with a number of system integrators that offer specialized legacy modernization services and who are capable of handling projects of any size.

Partners

See the list of our Mainframe Migration Partners on our Technology Partners page.

Mainframe Migration Alliance

Alchemy Solutions is an active member of the Mainframe Migration Alliance (MMA). The MMA is an organization created by Microsoft and other industry partners designed to help customers migrate workloads off the mainframe and onto the Microsoft Windows platform. The alliance represents a group of companies that have their interests aligned in making legacy migration easier and more efficient for customers. The MMA has a Website which is a good reference for checking options for your complete IBM migration solution, for example when your applications contain significant elements not covered by Alchemy Solutions solutions such as large amounts of assembler, or reliance on non-SQL databases.

Legacy Modernization Case Studies

Exploring a Successful Modernization Project

Webinar (recorded)

Alchemy Solutions, in association with Microsoft, presented a unique opportunity for users to hear from Alchemy customer, Crystal Cruises, the benefits of moving from the mainframe to the .NET environment. View Recording

• Cruise Line Migrates from Mainframe to .NET, Speeds Performance, Enables New Processes
• Mainframe-to-Windows Move Speeds Agility up to 300 Percent for Global Publisher
• .NET Framework Provides Solution for Italian Social Security, Opening AS/400 Applications to Millions of Users
• Stockholmshem (Property Firm) Migrates from Mainframe to Windows, Cuts Costs 60 Percent, Ups Speed
• Scottish & Southern Energy plc Migrates 1.9 TB Database Applications using Fujitsu’s NetCOBOL for World Class Performance
• NetCOBOL for .NET Provides Route for Interpolis to Modernize 800GB Database Application While Saving Money and Improving Performance
• Presidential Life Refreshes CICS with NeoKicks
• West Covina Service Group Turns HP3000 Dead-End into a .NET Superhighway
• State of Washington Department of Licensing Selects NetCOBOL for .NET
• San Diego Schools
• Superior Court Stanislaus County System

Legacy Modernization Case Study Videos and Presentations

• Join Crystal Cruises’ staff as they sail through the benefits of migrating. Select the CrystalCruisesVideo.wmv link at the right of Microsoft’s case study page or watch the Silverlight presentation on the Crystal Cruises modernization project.
• See Simon & Schuster staff explain how moving to Windows with NetCOBOL helped increase their agility threefold. Select one of the “.wmv” files in the “Download Documents” section of Microsoft’s case study page.
• See the staff of Stockholmshem describe their migration experiences. Select one of the ".wmv" files in the "Download Documents" section of Microsoft's case study page
• State of Washington Department of Licensing
  See staff from Washington DOL, Microsoft and Fujitsu describe the project in this fast-paced, three-minute video.
  

Legacy Modernization White Papers

• Numerous useful papers can be found at the Microsoft page “Learn More About Mainframe Modernization”
• In particular check: Moving Mainframe Applications to Windows January 2008
• Mainframe-Compatible Transaction Processing on Windows (PDF)* July 2007
• Job Scheduling on Windows (PDF) January 2007
• Batch Applications - The Hidden Asset (PDF)* June 2006
• Why the NeoSort World Record is Good News for Mainframe Users (PDF)* July 2006

Articles Related to Legacy Modernization

• Debunking the Mainframe is Greener Myth (PDF) – presentation given by Kelly Hollis at the Microsoft WinHEC 2008 conference
• Fujitsu and ATERAS announce Illinois Township High School District 211 Migrates IMS to SQL Server with ATERAS and Fujitsu Solution
• Fujitsu and Oracle demonstrate superior off-mainframe performance with TPC-C record
• White paper: Batch Applications - The Hidden Asset
• DePaul University Study: Shows migrating using NetCOBOL for .NET and NeoKicks is much much faster than recoding in JAVA.
• Microsoft TechEd Podcast: Microsoft interviews Steve Crawford from Fujitsu Computer Systems and Basim Kadhim from Fujitsu about the hardware and software available for Legacy Modernization. See video. (Streamed Windows Media Video, .wmv)
• Computerworld: Features NetCOBOL customer Euronext in article "Microsoft courts mainframe shops, pushes Windows use"
• DevSource: Fujitsu Kicks CICS From Mainframe to .NET
• Tech Target: Ancor Migrates from IBM Mainframe to Windows
• Network World: Court Ditches Mainframe for Windows System
• Insurance Networking News: Presidential Life Rejuvenates Valuable Legacy Code
• ITJungle: Fujitsu Chases $2 Billion with PrimeQuest Itanium Boxes
• White paper: Reuse versus Rewrite: An Empirical Study of Alternative Software Development Methods for Web-enabling Mission-critical COBOL/CICS Legacy Applications - Kanter/Muscarello, DePaul University (PDF)