Companies are rapidly consolidating their technology stacks to reduce costs and maximize IT performance. Our Application Consolidation solution leverages our Automated Refactoring technology to transform relatively obscure languages, such as CA Telon, to a common COBOL dialect. This reduces the complexity and footprint of your mainframe source code. Our solution also decreases costs by eliminating licensing fees and reducing risks associated with a shrinking talent pool capable of maintaining CA Telon.
CA Telon to COBOL Conversion
Why modernize?
CHALLENGES
Scarcity of domain expertise
Developers who understand CA Telon are reaching retirement age and no one is being trained to replace them, resulting in a steadily diminishing talent pool. As this shortage grows, the costs and risk of relying on the language will continue to rise.
Limited flexibility
Companies are rapidly moving to modern environments and practices such as DevOps and the Cloud. CA Telon and the underlying systems that support it were not designed for modern IT. This results in difficult integrations and limited flexibility.
Exorbitant costs
Mainframes cost as much as 4,500 per cent more to operate than equivalent Cloud counterparts. This figure is compounded by CA Telon's rising licensing fees.
Application Consolidation
OUR SOLUTION
Many organizations are looking to reduce costs and minimize the risk of a shrinking talent pool by extricating their existing mainframe applications from beneath the weight of relatively obscure languages, such as CA Telon. In some cases, the goal is to retain the mainframe and reduce complexity. In other cases, rehosting offers a way to shift applications away from the mainframe infrastructure and into a more modern, cost-effective Cloud environment. In both instances, our Application Consolidation solution is paramount to success.
On-Mainframe
Our Application Consolidation solution includes the assessment, refactoring, and optimization of 4GL and procedural codebases to COBOL for maximum maintainability. For example, CA Telon, which can be intermingled with COBOL on the mainframe, can be consolidated to COBOL. This eliminates licensing fees and simplifies maintenance of your mainframe application estate. Refactored COBOL code and BMS / MFS maps can be edited and extended using standard development tools, following the same component and naming structure as the original application (even comments are preserved). Developers familiar with the source environment should easily be able to recognize business logic in the refactored COBOL.
Rehosting
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 modern, distributed platforms, either on-premises or in the Cloud, without change. Underlying legacy databases are migrated to relational models, configured to seamlessly interact with your applications via the rehosting platform.
Rehosting solutions are optimized to operate with a core application language such as COBOL. These core languages are retained and rehosted into the target environment of your choice. We leverage our Application Consolidation solution to refactor other application languages within the same estate into the selected, single optimized language. For example, CA Telon, which can be intermingled with COBOL on the mainframe, can be consolidated to COBOL and rehosted, eliminating licensing fees and simplifying maintenance of your application on the rehosting platform.
Automated Refactoring
Our Automated Refactoring software powers the Application Consolidation solution, preserving the benefits of legacy systems while empowering organizations to leverage the advantages of a consolidated application stack, whether on or off-mainframe. Many mainframe application transformation solutions create structurally similar programs in the target language but require additional re-engineering efforts to yield desired results.
Our Automated Refactoring software is built for customization, enabling our team of modernization experts to fine-tune the tooling rather than the code it produces. This ensures adherence to standards and best practices across the estate. Our Application Consolidation solution was designed with the following requirements in mind:
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Refactored applications must remain functionally equivalent to their original counterparts
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Refactored applications must operate independent of third party licensing, libraries, and constraints
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Refactored applications must be easily maintainable
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Refactored applications should perform as well as, or better than, the original applications
First, our Automated Refactoring software deconstructs the legacy codebase to isolate source code and classify down to the field level. It then refactors the assets using customized rules based on customer requirements and standards. Remarkably, this turnkey solution retains your valuable business logic without requiring code freezes or additional licensing.
The refactoring process includes flow normalization, code restructuring, data layer extraction, data remodeling, and packaging for reconstruction. Cloned code is identified and common replacements created – simplifying maintenance and manageability, while complex data and control dependency analysis is used to locate and remove dead code. Upon reconstruction, new code structures are generated and deployed into the target environment.
Once the applications are refactored, developers can extend application functionality across the entire estate using the same standard tools and concepts. Precious business logic from the refactored codebase is preserved, making it easy for developers to maintain the refactored code.
Over 35 years of mainframe modernization experience
More than 500 successful modernization projects completed
Over 2.5 billion lines of code refactored through automation
Intelligent modernization, unparalleled experience
OUR PROCESS
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Step 1: Discovery
We begin every modernization initiative with a discovery, free of charge. Our modernization 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 we recommend optimal modernization 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 our automated tools to fully catalog and develop a complete understanding of the application, infrastructure, and operational components of a mainframe environment. It exposes mainframe artifacts that organizations did not know they had, relationships they did not realize existed, and assets that are no longer in use. Assess and design activities provide stakeholders with valuable insight to inform application modernization 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 activities, the database and data modernization, and (if necessary) build-out of the target operating environment. During transform, we refactor pre-defined work packets, perform functional tests, and deliver them into the DevOps pipeline. While customer teams build, test, and deploy these work packets in the target environment, we refactor the next work packet, iterating until the entire mainframe estate has been transformed.
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Step 4: Test and 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 us 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, we refresh the target environment by transforming a final snapshot of the mainframe environment to account for changes that have taken place throughout the modernization project as part of normal business operations. Fortunately, since all adjustments and optimizations 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
We work closely with you and your team to ensure a smooth transition into production. 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. We also provide on-demand assistance during the warranty period following production deployment, as well as post-transformation support of the modernized application.
Galaxy, a Fiserv product, combines integrated software solutions with a best-in-class data centre to serve credit unions and their members. Due to its complexities, Galaxy was costly in terms of runtimes and licensing. The decision was taken to move to a modern open system.
Fiserv Inc.
Founded in 1984
Additional insights to help you modernize
RESOURCES
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2021 Mainframe Modernization Report
Explore the the impact Covid-19 is having, and will continue to have, on modernization plans, and the case for application modernization among large enterprises with annual revenues over $1 billion.
Read report Report -
Liberate legacy data
This whitepaper provides insight to the common challenges in handling legacy data and options for solving them.
Read whitepaper Whitepaper -
Live Discussion: The 2021 Mainframe Modernization Business Barometer Report
Webinar Watch on demand -
How cloud migration can help your organization to go green
Blog Read blog -
Know the details, reduce the risk: How to begin your mainframe modernization journey
Webinar Watch on demand -
Struggling to adopt DevOps? Maybe it’s because of your ageing mainframe
Blog Read blog
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