As we enter a new year, it’s only natural to look back on what we accomplished in the past 365 days. Many of those accomplishments centered around explaining what TSRI does in a way that nearly everyone can understand. Software modernization and refactoring solutions are, by their very nature, complex concepts. Teams of specialized engineers are required to successfully complete each project, and even the simplest automated transformations can take months to get all the right pieces put into place.
In this blog, we highlight some of the most informative pieces published in 2021. These materials were designed to help make the automated modernization process easier to understand and navigate from start to finish. We hope you’ll find them useful as you consider your organization’s IT plans and modernization initiatives for the coming year.
GETTING READY TO MODERNIZE!
Modernizing to the Cloud
Scott Pickett, TSRI’s Vice President of Product Operations and Service Delivery, conducted a live presentation that discussed how automated modernization can help organizations move their applications to the cloud. The presentation resulted in a complete series of videos, all of which are accessible from the post linked above.
Check out this article featuring a downloadable Checklist: Preparing for Cloud Modernization to help you assess your organization’s current assets, including your existing codebase, databases, and other tools that may be installed on your mainframes and other legacy technologies.
MODERNIZE WITH LESS DISRUPTION
One of the major risks of any modernization is the amount of time a system will be taken offline during cutover to the new environment. Any downtime becomes a disruption to the business, whether that means lost revenue or maintaining security of mission-critical systems. This post, 4 Tips for Modernizing with Minimal Business Disruption discusses ways that organizations can mitigate disruption, and also explains how proofs of concepts, step-wise automated migrations, and proper planning play into maintaining continuous uptime.
Common Misconceptions About Modernization (And What to Do About Them)
Application modernization is a game changer in any organization. Oftentimes, perceived obstacles, such as prolonged system downtime, get in the way of bringing mission-critical applications to modern programming environments. This article helps to dispel many of those notions.
Automated Refactoring: The Critical Component to Achieving a Successful Modernization
When any application gets modernized, the codebase shifts from a legacy language such as COBOL or PL/1 to a modern language such as C# or Java. However, just because the language is up to date doesn’t mean the system will operate more efficiently. That’s why refactoring is so important: this automated, iterative process eliminates dead code and redundancies while streamlining the entire application. It’s truly the key to more secure, robust applications.
Microservices Offer Robustness and Security in Modern Systems
Many, if not most of the clients who modernize their mainframes with TSRI started out with monolithic systems. All functions in the workflow relied upon one another, and if one area went down, the entire system went down. Modern software architecture operates using multiple tiers that interoperate with one another, but aren’t dependent on each other. That means if one area goes down, the entire system doesn’t go down with it. A component of this structure, known as microservices, makes for easier software maintenance and also protects organizations while allowing for faster go-to-market strategies for new applications.
Cloud Migration and Containerization: 3 Steps to Reduce Risk and Ensure Success
An important benefit to automated modernization is how the business logic of the transformed application never changes. Sometimes, particularly when modernizing to the cloud, the legacy application may still require some usage. Rather than keep the mainframe in operation or employing some other inefficient, insecure method, transforming to a containerized modern codebase can keep those application instances separate from the rest of its processes. This method increases security and efficiency while allowing for further system development in modern languages.
As you contemplate modernizing your mainframe or embedded-system applications in the new year, we hope these articles will provide you with the knowledge you need to move forward.
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.
Modernization’s hot.
If there’s a single takeaway from TSRI’s experience as a sponsor and exhibitor at AWS re:Invent 2021 in Las Vegas, it’s that enterprises and governments alike have their minds on software modernization. If they haven’t started the process of migrating their mainframes and legacy applications to modern architectures to the cloud, then they will be soon actively moving in that direction.
“Virtually every CIO who has a mainframe application is now looking to migrate,” said Scott Pickett, TSRI’s Vice President of Service Operations and Product Delivery, who attended the conference at the end of November.
“Mainframe modernization was the centerpiece of activity for the conference-goers we interfaced with at AWS re:Invent,” echoed Greg Tadlock, TSRI’s Vice President of Sales. While modernization comes in many different flavors—mainframes can be transformed in multiple ways (replatforming, redevelopment, or refactoring, for example.), software modernization is a niche inside the modernization industry. It’s a niche that TSRI has embraced for over two decades and doubled down on earlier this year through validation and selection as a launch partner of the AWS Mainframe Modernization competency. Mainframe application modernization is clearly a movement that has entered the mainstream. “The validation that we made the right decision to be a launch partner with AWS on their Mainframe Modernization competency was confirmed at the re:Invent conference,” Tadlock said.
As a company, TSRI has mainly focused on migrating legacy systems to modern languages and architectures, whether on-premises or on the cloud. One thing that surprised the on-site team at re:Invent were the questions about round-tripping. In essence, a round trip is a refactoring of applications originally written in software languages that most modernizations currently target, Java or C#. Both languages have been in use for two decades (or more) themselves, and the technology landscape has changed significantly during that time.
“They came to us specifically because they saw refactoring and the need to take their older Java or C# apps and get them refactored to targeted cloud services, microservices, and containers,” said Kory Caze, TSRI’s Lead Account Executive. It’s a service TSRI has begun to offer, and will certainly become a focus area in the coming year.
The refactoring or transformation of nearly any legacy language to modern languages is certainly one the core values TSRI offers to the modernization market. The capability to modernize more than standard IBM COBOL applications can be useful for, say, an airline that needs to modernize their FORTRAN applications—an opportunity that actually presented itself at the conference this year.
“There are so many software languages and technologies out there, that you can't have a one-size-fits-all solution for,” Kory said. In fact, TSRI’s Director of Business Development, René Wagner, had three different inquiries about doing a transformation from MUMPS, a relatively obscure mainframe language originally developed for healthcare operations—all within 10 minutes of each other! “It's like the most random language,” said René.
Knowing that several companies have joined AWS’s Mainframe Modernization competency is reassuring to smaller companies like TSRI. They have a significant role to play in bringing major corporations and public sector agencies to the cloud quickly and efficiently, according to René.
“If you went over to the modernization area [at re:Invent] and you asked Amazon, ‘Who do you use to transform your systems to modernize the mainframe?’” René said, “their answer was, ‘Oh, we have an ecosystem of partners that we utilize to get this work done.’”
Everyone on the TSRI team saw live, in action, that modernization will be important over the next few years. Migration to the cloud, they all said, is not a matter of if, but when.
“That was kind of the feeling that I got,” René said. “Modernization is happening, and these people have bled enough on what they currently have.”
While TSRI has begun to focus more of its efforts on cloud migrations, with AWS as a leading platform, the re:Invent conference opened the company’s eyes to plenty of opportunities that the company’s leadership might not have considered even a year or two ago. Being on the floor as a first-time sponsor and having the ability to demonstrate what the company can do, through Application Blueprint® demonstrations, or walking booth visitors through case studies, has opened a lot of doors for the TSRI team.
“The AWS mainframe migration announcement validates the tools, capabilities, and shift that TSRI has undergone, as well as in the industry,” said Scott Pickett, TSRI’s Vice President of Service Operations and Product Delivery.
Next year should be even more interesting.
If you were unable attend AWS re:Invent 2021, you can still access the materials TSRI shared that show what we can do to help your organization modernize to the AWS cloud. Download this information to get started!
Case Study: Modernizing a Critical ILS-S U.S. Air Force System for AWS
TSRI’s approach to modernizing mainframe technology for AWS
Checklist: Preparing for Cloud Modernization
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.
Downtime, lack of agility, and vendor lock may keep organizations from modernizing their aging legacy applications, but plenty of other roadblocks, whether technical or psychological, can also stand in the way from an organization from undertaking a high-stakes modernization effort. For example:
Understanding and Overcoming the Misconceptions and Fears
If you’re a change maker in your organization — whether on the business or IT side — you probably see the need to modernize your applications. Throughout our 26 years of modernizing critical applications, we have found that many perceived obstacles are actually misconceptions, fears, uncertainties, or doubts that arise due to a lack of information.
Here are the most common misconceptions and obstacles, and how we help our clients get around them:
Obstacle 1: “It Will Cost Too Much!”
Cost almost always rises to the top of the list. From an OpEx perspective, once a modernized system goes into production, your organization can achieve savings quickly and dramatically. One client reduced its IT operations costs from over $1 million to tens of thousands of dollars—per month. While not every transformation will yield remarkable savings like that, your organization will recoup its modernization costs quickly.
In addition, because an automated transformation is much less likely to produce the inevitable errors produced by humans—we are, after all, only human—that means far lower instances of cost overruns.
Obstacle 2: System Downtime
Many organizations see time to market and system downtime as major concerns. Undertaking an automated modernization will be the fastest, most reliable alternative nearly all the time. As opposed to rewriting all or most of the code in the target language by hand, a fully automated transformation can take months—if not years—off the timeframe to bring the modernized application into production. Such automated modernizations also can give you the option to run your applications in the legacy and modernized environments side by side for testing, and then flip the switch to put the new environment into production with very little, if any, downtime—which means no disruption to the business.
Obstacle 3: “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it!”
Organizations may also face the dilemma of making change if there isn’t a need to change. Such attitudes can be embedded into an organization’s culture, and convincing top management to commit to large expenditures where much of the beauty lies under the hood can be a heavy lift. However, external issues may force a modernization—oftentimes when it’s too late.
Most enterprise companies and government agencies running mainframes historically had armies of programmers that maintained their systems. As the decades rolled by, however, most of those programmers retired from the workforce while computer science programs shifted to educating on modern, object-oriented languages like C# or Java. As one client discovered for PL/1, a much more obscure mainframe language, the agency that ran the application found only a single person in the entire country capable of supporting the application. That was clearly not a sustainable solution.
Even more challenging, the language or platform itself may have survived past its reasonable lifespan. TSRI has modernized applications originally housed on mainframes built by Wang. The company ceased to exist in the 1990s and its subsequent iterations no longer supported a version of COBOL proprietary to its systems. At that point, modernization wasn’t a luxury—it was a necessity.
Obstacle 4: The Knowledge Gap
Finally, when a legacy system has been in service for 40, 50, or even 60 years, the original developers will doubtfully still be a part of the organization. Institutional knowledge can be passed down, but most IT leaders won’t have a clear view of what their systems can do. The transformation engine that takes on an automated modernization can also generate documentation that provides a detailed blueprint of an application today and how it will function in the modern target language. Those insights will help the engineers who maintain the application understand how a modernization can achieve their business goals.
Face the Fear and Reap Big Rewards!
Undertaking a drastic change like modernizing an application comes with risks and likely some trepidation, but it also creates opportunities that might never have been possible by continuing to maintain a legacy system. Completion of a successful transformation will not only save your organization money and give you better access to development resources, it will make your organization more agile and provide you with modern tools to better serve your end users.
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.
As Scott notes in this video, the latest in our Modernizing for the Future series for undertaking a cloud modernization, “One of the benefits associated with using an automated technology is that none of it is done by hand.” In this video Scott introduces the idea of automation when it comes to modernization and how taking this avenue will preserve the functionality and logic of the legacy applications. The benefit is that the application will operate exactly the same way it did previously, but with capabilities to expand into a more tiered approach so the application can take advantage of the best the cloud has to offer.
Originally aired live on May 18, 2021.
Additionally, having the automated transformation preserve the functionality means once organizations are ready to put the cloud applications into production, the data layer remains consistent so this can be done gradually with very little downtime in the production environments. That minimal business disruption greatly reduces the risk of data loss and technical failures. And from there, automated and semi-automated refactoring can begin to improve the quality and functionality of the application—all in a cloud environment.
Be sure to view our other videos in this series:
Videos 1 & 2: “Setting Project Scope” and “Setting Up Development Sandboxes”
Video 3: Selecting Cloud Vendors and Your Target Language
As always, TSRI can help answer any questions you may have about modernization, automation, and making sure your systems are ready to deploy in modern computing environments.
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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.
TSRI was engaged to modernize US Navy SATCOM Multi-band Terminal (NMT) Modem Control System (MCS) from Ada to C++. To provide SPAWAR with the best modernization approach, Raytheon selected TSRI to transform the existing MCS Ada code into C++ and to re-factor
the C++ toward the desired target architecture. TSRI's fixed-price "integrator ready" deliverable was selected by Raytheon for its low technical risk,
shortened schedule, and low cost.
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"The Software Revolution, Inc. To Participate In The U.S. Air Force's Software Technology Conference" |
| Kirkland, WA. (March 7, 2002) – The Software Revolution, Inc. (TSRI) will be a major participant at the upcoming Air Force-sponsored Software Technology Conference (STC) in Salt Lake City, Utah scheduled for 29 April to 2 May 2002. Located in Booth 927 of the Exhibition Hall, the senior staff of TSRI will be available throughout the week to answer questions and provide in-depth demonstrations of the eVolution 2000 TM toolset. For those attending this important conference, it will be an excellent opportunity for a first-hand view of TSRI's automated legacy system modernization technology that is sweeping the logistics and maintenance, and operational communities within the Air Force. TSRI will be providing real-time transformation demonstrations of the Jovial, Fortran, Cobol, Assembler, Ada, and CMS2 languages into C++. It will also be an opportunity to learn about the range of contract vehicles now available to TSRI for quickly and efficiently providing support to the Air Force eVolution 2000™ toolset The foundation of TSRI's capabilities is the eVolution 2000™ tool-set. Through the application of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies, TSRI has developed a highly automated capability (99%+) to assess, transform, re-factor, and if desired web-enable, a wide variety of application source languages, along with their associated databases. TSRI can transform Cobol, Jovial, C, Fortran, Assembler, Ada, and CMS2 into modern, platform-independent C++, JAVA, or XML (eXtended Markup Language) with CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) compatibility. Using eVolution 2000™, TSRI can carry out sophisticated legacy software modernization in a fraction of the time and budget associated with alternative approaches. More importantly, TSRI reduces the technical and schedule risk associated with legacy system modernization by generating modernized applications and data that are fully documented and guaranteed accurate functional equivalents of the original legacy system. For more information about TSRI, visit our web site or contact: TSRI Greg Tadlock Vice President of Sales Phone: (425) 284-2770 Fax: (425) 284-2785 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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"TSRI CEO Coauthors Information Modernization Case Studies Book For The OMG Press" |
| Kirkland, WA. (October 10, 2009) – The first major publication from the Object Management Group Architecture Driven Modernization Task Force will be appearing in book stores commencing February, 2010. Published by Morgan Kaufman as part of the OMG Series, the Information System Transformation: Architecture Driven Modernization Case Studies in 400+ pages is already being heralded as the most definitive handbook of best practices for information system modernization published in more than a decade. CTOs, CIOs and System Architects of Organizations seeking guidance in the theory, principles, disciplines, tools, scenarios and management strategies for legacy system modernization will use Information System Transformation: Architecture Driven Modernization Case Studies by Bill Ulrich and Philip Newcomb an irreplaceable handbook for guiding their modernization projects. In contrast to the tangled IT architectures that resulted from decades of manual patches, failed replacements, and outmoded transliteration approaches, ADM is an automated approach for information system modernization that restores the vitality of legacy systems by automatically modeling and transforming them into modern languages, and modern designs and architectures without the need for manual intervention except to adjust the models and rules that carry out the automated modernization process. This new OMG Series publication combines theory and practical guidance from lessons learned during the modernization of major mission critical systems. The European air traffic control system, the Veteran Heath Administration’s electronic health care system, Air Force logistics systems, Navy NMCI systems are just a few of the highly successful modernization projects that are the focus of the many in-depth case studies in this new book. The outcome or a three year collaboration between Philip Newcomb, CEO of the Software Revolution, Inc and principal contributor to the ASTM, SMM and KDM standards and William Ulrich, Co-chair of the Object Management Group (OMG) Architecture-Driven Modernization Task Force (ADM-TF), Information System Transformation: Architecture Driven Modernization Case Studies is the first OMG Series publication to address architecture driven modernization (ADM). To purchase the book (paperback) HERE To purchase the kindle version HERE For more information about TSRI, visit our web site or contact: TSRI Greg Tadlock Vice President of Sales Phone: (425) 284-2770 Fax: (425) 284-2785 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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"Raytheon Selects TSRI For Patriot Battalion Simulation Support System (BAS3) Modernization" |
| Kirkland, WA. (July 15, 2009) – The Raytheon Corporation (HCSC) has awarded a ‘follow-on’ contract to the Software Revolution, Inc. (TSRI) to modernize the Japanese version of the Battalion Simulation Support System (BAS3) and its Preprocessor (PRED). BAS3 and PRED are simulation programs necessary for testing, integrating and validating the Patriot tactical software coded in FORTRAN. The legacy FORTRAN BAS3 and PRED execute on a Unisys computer in a unique, legacy environment that no longer meet the needs of the Patriot modernization program. Under the tasking of this contract award TSRI is tasked with translation and rehosting PRED and BAS3 from FORTRAN to C++ to run in the Solaris environment with GNU g++ and Wind River VxWorks. Under this contract, TSRI provided transformation, re-factoring for ‘GOTO statements elimination’ and restructured the code to make the code more maintainable, variable renaming from cryptic six (6) to C++ extended names, customization services to meet Raytheon coding standards, and engineering services to support Raytheon testing and integration. TSRI also provided a Transformation Blueprint to assist Raytheon engineers with side-by-side code and design reviews. Greg Tadlock, TSRI’s Vice President, Sales & Marketing said, “TSRI is proud to support Raytheon’s modernization of the Patriot battalion simulation system in support the U.S. Army's anti-ballistic missile (ABM) mission in Japan. TSRI success with the Japanese Patriot for Raytheon is yet another successful example of TSRI ability to modernize mission-critical legacy system into modern object-oriented languages and platforms that are better suitable to the mission of the US military in the 21st Century.” For more details about the Patriot battalion simulation modernization projects Raytheon, please download the SSTC presentation given by the Raytheon project manager, Gwen Bottomley on June 2007 : (Download) For more information about TSRI, visit our web site or contact: TSRI Greg Tadlock Vice President of Sales Phone: (425) 284-2770 Fax: (425) 284-2785 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
"TSRI Generates 4.5 Million Line Transformation Blueprint For Modernization of Major Banking System."
Kirkland, WA. (June 18, 2009) – A large systems integrator has awarded a highly competed contract to The Software Revolution, Inc. (TSRI) to commence modernization of a major financial management system in the banking sector. Under this contract TSRI generated the Transformation Blueprint to document the before and after transformation of 4.500.000 lines of VMS VAX FORTRAN and 200.000 LOC DMS system into Java, and generated the complete UML Design and Architecture for the target ‘To-Be’ systems. Using the Transformation Blueprint as a modernization roadmap, TSRI provided engineering support services to its system integrator to define strategies for custom reengineering specifications and detailed code analyses to support cost estimation and ROI analysis for the overall project.
Greg Tadlock, TSRI’s Vice President, Sales & Marketing said, “The success of TSRI and its system integrator partner during the Definition phase of this modernization project has provided our banking client with an optimal plan for modernizing their core financial systems, a plan that minimizes the cost, schedule and technical risk parameters while delivering the best ROI to the bottom line in the least amount of time. Through the use of the Transformation Blueprints during the planning phase, the client was actually able see how his multi-million line legacy system consisting of multiple languages and databases would be transformed, redesign and reengineered. After yet another success, we trust the IT community recognizes TSRI JANUS Studio® as the superior solution in the modernization industry, a solution that combines automated modeling, translation, refactoring to reengineer major legacy systems with human guidance but no hand-coding into the highest quality modernized information systems.”
For more information about TSRI, visit our web site or contact:
TSRI
Greg Tadlock
Vice President of Sales
Phone: (425) 284-2770
Fax: (425) 284-2785
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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"New Book by Ulrich and Newcomb: Information Systems Transformation: Architecture-Driven Modernization Case Studies with |
Kirkland, WA. (Feburary 22, 2010) – Book Release Information Systems Transformation: Architecture-Driven Modernization Case StudiesBy William M. Ulrich and Philip H. Newcomb Published by Morgan Kaufmann ISBN: 978-0-12-374913-0 Copyright Feb 2010 $59.95 USD €43.95 EUR £29.99 GBP www.informationsystemstransformation.com |
| What The Experts Are Saying: According to Grady Booch, IBM Fellow & Chief Scientist, Software Engineering: "Ulrich and Newcomb's book offers a comprehensive examination of the challenges of growing software-intensive systems … (Read more...) According to Ed Yourdon, noted Author and Consultant: "Modernization is going to be a more and more important part of the overall IT strategy. William Ulrich and Philip Newcomb's important new book ... (Read more...) According to Richard Soley Ph.D. Chairman/CEO, Object Management Group (OMG): “Estimates by internationally-known researchers of the worldwide legacy code base is now approaching a half-trillion lines. That only counts so-called "legacy languages" like COBOL--which drive the world. Add in database schemas … (Read more...) About the Book Information Systems Transformation: Architecture-Driven Modernization Case Studies, a new book by William Ulrich and Philip Newcomb, provides a practical guide to organizations seeking ways to understand and modernize existing systems as part of their information management strategies. It includes an introduction to ADM disciplines and standards, including alignment with business architecture, as well as a series of scenarios outlining how ADM is applied to various initiatives. Ten chapters, containing in-depth, modernization case studies, distill the theory and delineate principles, processes, and best practices for every industry, ensuring the book's leading position as a reference text for all of those organizations relying on complex software systems to maintain their economic, competitive and operational viability. (Read more...) Key Features
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William M. Ulrich is President of Tactical Strategy Group, Inc. (TSGI) and a management consultant. Mr. Ulrich has been in the modernization field since 1980 and continues to serve as a strategic advisor on business and IT transformation projects for corporations and government agencies. In 2005, Mr. Ulrich was awarded the Keeping America Strong Award for his work in information systems modernization. He is Co-Chair of the OMG Architecture-Driven Modernization Task Force and the OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group, Editorial Director of the Business Architecture Institute, and author of Legacy Systems: Transformation Strategies. |
Philip H. Newcomb is Founder and CEO of The Software Revolution, Incorporated (TSRI) and creator of TSRI's acclaimed architecture-driven modernization services and toolset JANUS Studio®. He is coauthor of Reverse Engineering (Kluwer 1996) with Linda Wills, Coeditor of the 2nd Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (IEEE 1995) with Elliot Chikofsky and principal author of the Abstract Syntax Tree Metamodeling Specification (OMG Specification 2009). With more than 35 publications and 70 successfully completed information system modernization projects he is a recognized leader in the application of artificial intelligence, automatic programming and formal methods to industrial-scale software modernization. |
| About Morgan Kaufmann: Since 1984, Morgan Kaufmann has published premier content on information technology, computer architecture, data management, computer networking, computer systems, human computer interaction, computer graphics, multimedia information and systems, artificial intelligence, computer security, and software engineering. Our audience includes the research and development communities, information technology (IS/IT) managers, and students in professional degree programs. Learn more at www.mkp.com. Contact Bob Dodd, 781-313-4726 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., for an electronic review copy, access to our expert authors, or to publish excerpts of our material. For more information about TSRI contact: TSRI Greg Tadlock Vice President of Sales Phone: (425) 284-2770 Fax: (425) 284-2785 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
