Why modernise to AWS?
CHALLENGES
Scarcity of domain expertise
Developers and database administrators who understand mainframe technology are reaching retirement age, resulting in a steadily diminishing talent pool. As this shortage grows, the costs and risks of relying on legacy languages and databases will continue to rise.
Limited flexibility
Companies are rapidly moving to modern environments and practices such as DevOps and AWS, while mainframes and the languages and databases that support them were not designed for modern IT, resulting in difficult integrations and limited flexibility.
Exorbitant costs
Mainframes cost as much as 4,500 per cent more to operate than equivalent AWS counterparts, a figure compounded by a scarcity of development resources and rising licensing and maintenance fees for ancillary mainframe utilities, applications, and databases.
Extend the value of mainframe apps and data
OUR SOLUTIONS
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Rehosting
You can retain your mainframe application code as-is while taking advantage of the cost savings and infinite elasticity of AWS by rehosting your legacy estate with Advanced.
Rehosting, sometimes referred to as replatforming, is ideal for companies whose applications are still meeting their business needs, and who therefore wish to retain their core application development skills while moving away from non-relational databases and expensive mainframe infrastructure. With rehosting, application source code is migrated onto a modern, distributed platform in AWS, without change. Underlying legacy databases are migrated to relational models, configured to seamlessly interact with your applications via the rehosting platform.
Our Rehosting solutions leverage three key service activities to account for the application source code, data and supporting operational infrastructure:- Application migration
- Data migration
- Platform deployment
Over 35 years of mainframe modernisation experience
More than 500 successful modernisation projects completed
Intelligent Modernisation, Unparalleled Experience
OUR PROCESS
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Step 1: Discovery
Advanced begins every modernisation initiative with a discovery, free of charge. Our modernisation experts work with you to understand and document your business and technical goals and objectives. Together, we gather information about your mainframe estate. Everything from infrastructure to language and database types and quantities are accounted for. The discovery concludes with a workshop where Advanced recommends optimal AWS-bound modernisation approaches based on information gathered, as well as rough order of magnitude (ROM) pricing, and estimated project durations and resource requirements.
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Step 2: Assess and Design
The assess and design phase is performed using Advanced's automated tools to fully catalogue and develop a complete understanding of the application, infrastructure, and operational components of a mainframe environment. It exposes mainframe artifacts that organisations did not know they had, relationships they did not realise existed, and assets that are no longer in use. Assess and design activities provide stakeholders with valuable insight to inform application modernisation decisions such as disposition strategies and target environment architectures. It also mitigates cost and risk by highlighting potential challenges and how to overcome them. At the conclusion of the assess and design phase, all in-scope artifacts are accounted for, a detailed project plan is established, and the transformation process begins.
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Step 3: Transform
The transform phase includes the bulk of the Automated Refactoring and Rehosting activities, the database and data modernisation, and build-out of the target operating environment in AWS. During transform, Advanced refactors pre-defined work packets, performs functional tests, and delivers them into the DevOps pipeline. While customer teams build, test, and deploy these work packets in AWS, Advanced refactors the next work packet, iterating until the entire mainframe estate has been transformed.
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Step 4: Test & Deploy
The test and deploy phase begins with the receipt of work packets through the DevOps toolchain as they are delivered from iterative refactoring activities in the transform phase. If issues arise, the work packet is passed back to Advanced where we review the code, adjust our tooling, reprocess the work packet, and send it back into the DevOps pipeline to resume testing and deployment. This process repeats until the entire refactored estate has been deployed.
Prior to go-live, Advanced refreshes the target environment in AWS by transforming a final snapshot of the mainframe environment to account for changes that have taken place throughout the modernisation project as part of normal business operations. Fortunately, since all adjustments and optimisations have been made to the automated refactoring tools and not the refactored code, this final refresh can be delivered into production over a weekend, eliminating code freezes.
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Step 5: Support
Advanced works closely with you and your team to ensure a smooth transition into AWS. Part of this transition includes the cooperative construction and testing of a go-live production cutover plan to reduce the potential risks associated with application deployments. Advanced also provides on-demand assistance during the warranty period following production deployment, as well as post-transformation support of the modernised application.
Migrating CIS on the mainframe to Aristo on AWS saved The New York Times 70% in annual operating costs.
Automated Refactoring
The New York Times
Additional insights to help you modernise
RESOURCES
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2020 Mainframe Modernisation Report
Explore the global trends in the mainframe market, the challenges facing organisations and the case for application modernisation among large enterprises with annual revenues over $1 billion.
Read reportReport
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Expect the Unexpected
A webinar discussing how to minimise the impact of major compelling events through application modernisation and migration to AWS
Watch webinarWebinar
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Live Discussion: The 2020 Mainframe Modernisation Business Barometer Report
Webinar Watch on demand -
Advanced's Rob Anderson Speaks at Pivotal’s SpringOne Conference
Blog Read blog