Displaying items by tag: cloud

Is modernizing your software applications to the cloud a topic of discussion in your organization? Though a move to the cloud may not be the immediate next step in your organization’s IT strategy, it is likely that such a migration will eventually be critical to long-term success. If you’re contemplating (or already planning on) a move to the cloud and need to modernize your applications, then you need to be prepared.

With hundreds of large-scale modernizations under our belt, the TSRI team has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. While no modernization effort is without its bumps, there are things you can do to pave an easier path. We’ve developed a checklist to give you a head start on your modernization journey to ensure success from the beginning!

Technical

Discovery on your existing mainframe 

Conduct a technical assessment to help understand your existing systems to set a baseline for a transformation.

CODEBASE
 

Existing languages (primary sub-languages)

Lines of code and comments

Readability and completeness of application documentation

Blackbox libraries

DATABASES
 

Database platform(s) & versions(s)

Database Metrics (Size, Tables, Columns, etc.)

Database type(s), e.g., flat file, relational, mid-range, etc.

Connection nodes to application codebase & other services

SCREEN (user interface)

    
Types (graphical or text-based)

Interoperability between applications

Usability

Feature assessment

• SERVICES

    
Licensing agreements

Tool feasibility

Assessment of needs

•  

• OTHER METRICS

    
MIPS consumption

Transactions & transaction volumes

Third-party tools & services

Customized tools

Undocumented tools (may be discoverable via an application blueprint process)

Physical Mainframe Review

Examines system architecture, technical services in use, and analysis of both internal and external services/applications. We can use this information to map your system to your desired target services and architecture.

Existing architecture survey

Architecture diagram evaluation

External applications assessment

Utilities and services assessment

Services overlap within the full application portfolio

Performance, quality, and security baselines and metrics

SMEs/Personnel

While the technical review is important, it’s also useful to have an understanding of who on the team is able to maintain and develop on your existing systems. The logic and technical requirements may be different once you’ve established your target architecture.

Survey of staffing (existing and future)

Assessment of team’s working knowledge of applications

Talent assessment within market

As you gather this information, TSRI uses its tools to assess the code, find any code modules/segments within applications that are no longer in use, and generate code-level documentation through a blueprint preview of the current codebase and what a future, modernized codebase might look like. We will then work with you to establish business requirements. Note that while many of these tasks individually take a short time, depending upon the number of applications and the size of your application portfolio, an end-to-end engagement can range anywhere from 1-2 years if your systems have fewer than 10 million lines of code to transform to 4-5 years for much larger portfolios and codebases.

Business

Business case development and financial discovery

Once you have completed a technical analysis and your IT leaders understand your existing systems, it is time to establish your organization’s business cases to modernize your applications and support a modern environment.

•  

• NEEDS ASSESSMENT

    
Timeframe for project phases and project completion

Market and internal demands

Then vs. now: evolution of your customer and business needs

Modern workflows and accessibility

Security posture

•  

• • CURRENT FINANCIAL STATE

    
Total cost of mainframe and application ownership

Mainframe operating expenses

Capital expenditures

Amortized costs

•  

• • INTANGIBLE COSTS BEYOND PRICE

    
Market agility

Business requirements agility

Availability of developers that support legacy systems

Download and print your own modernization checklist

While most businesses that rely upon mainframes will need to modernize in one way or another, every organization’s needs will be different. Base your organization’s decisions not just on the flashiest current technologies, but on the methodologies and technologies that will work best for your company today and into the future. TSRI can work with you to complete this checklist assessment to start you on the path of a fully automated mainframe modernization. Contact us now to begin!

TSRI is Here for You

As a leading provider of software modernization services, TSRI enables technology readiness for the cloud and other modern architecture environments. We bring software applications into the future quickly, accurately, and efficiently with low risk and minimal business disruption, accomplishing in months what would otherwise take years.

See Case Studies

Learn About Our Technology

Get started on your modernization journey today!

A $39 billion clothing retailer with 4,300 stores worldwide sought to modernize its suite of mainframe COBOL supply chain applications. These applications supported the client’s unique business process, which provided them with a major competitive advantage and fueled years of unprecedented growth. Today, the clients business logic was preserved and their services are hosted on Azure with data integration directly through service bus queues and scheduling handled via Logic Apps.

Customer:  Retail Client Source & Target Language: COBOL to C# Lines of Code: 86,000 Duration:  3 months Services: Code Transformation, Automated Refactoring, Testing and Implementation Support, Transformation Blueprint®

The U.S. Air Force uses the Integrated Logistics System – Supply (ILS-S), of which the Standard Base Supply System (SBSS) is a major part, as a mainstay of their supply chain. The SBSS program includes over 1.5 million lines of COBOL, as well as smaller numbers of C and Assembly, all of which are to be transformed into Java. 

During the past two months Federal government modernization has gained steam--first with the Administration’s modernization plan, released for comment at the end of August, followed by final movement on the critical Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act which gained Senate approval on September 18.

Code modernization has become increasingly important as we move toward integrated cloud-based and virtualized software environments. Modernization of code permits legacy applications to continue functioning efficiently and securely without a complete rewrite. This makes it possible to meet the demands of today's infrastructure requirements without high cost or compromises in security or functionality. Companies need to expand services, access improved processes and use resources more efficiently. This demands architectural changes. Bringing these trends together, containerization under Docker has created a new model for application deployment that provides numerous advantages to program operation and interoperability, but requires special accommodation.
 

The Eurocat Air Traffic Management System (EATMS) is used in 16 European countries and Australia. EATMS became subject to a modernization initiative in 2005. Thales Air Systems selected The Software Revolution, Inc. (TSRI) to modernize this system written in legacy Ada 83. After transforming this application to both Java and C++ for performance testing, Thales selected Java as the final target language and TSRI completed the modernization.

Customer: Thales Air Systems Source & Target Language: Ada to Java & C++ Lines of Code: 1,700,000 Duration:  9 months Services: Tuned JANUS Studio® to European Coding Standards, Code Transformation, Automated Refactoring, System Integration & Test Support, Transformation Blueprint®