No change in business logic.
Reduction in overhead costs.
Continuous development during and after migration.
These are a few modernization concepts that Scott Pickett, TSRI’s Vice President of Product Operations and Service Delivery, discussed on his recent appearance on Amazon Web Services’ APN TV channel.
“TSRI allows for an ability to do automated transformation of not only your language, but your application to the cloud environment, allowing you to bring in skilled, modern technology to your legacy implementations, being able to drive down the cost point associated with ongoing operational costs, and being able to deliver new applications, new functionality, new screens, and new capabilities in that modern language,” he said in his talk.
So what does that mean, exactly?
In TSRI’s modernization of a major European bank to the cloud, that meant they modernized approximately 80,000 lines of code at 99.7% automation. In other words, only 384 of those lines of code were hand-written. That's big for a project of this size—but it's huge when you're talking about applications with hundreds of thousands or even millions of lines of code!
For any organization, whether in commercial enterprise organizations like the banking client mentioned above, or in government agencies, modernization reduces risk.
“You're able to bring a new skill set, new experts that know Java and know CI and CD tools and apply them to your legacy application that's been modernized,” Scott said. “It literally also allows for the ability to drop tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars, off your monthly costs.”
As Scott also noted in his presentation, “we can not only transform code quickly…because there are very, very few manual changes, but it also means that you can migrate to the cloud and then be able to not have any business logic change associated with that migration.”
Maintaining business logic is a big deal when it comes to systems that measure their age in decades rather than years and the original programmers have long since moved on.
One other interesting point Scott brought up is how TSRI’s tools have enabled customers to maintain agility and competitive advantage by providing its clients with the modern, cloud-based applications they need—all while reaching back to its legacy DB2 database that supports the applications that have yet to be modernized.
Throughout the talk, Scott also pointed to how TSRI has adopted a step-wise model, which modernizes small applications or pieces of an application, tests for validity, then pushes into production before the next applications are transformed. Such a methodology allows the client to continue to develop in the legacy language, maintain a common data set, and minimizes business disruption to almost zero.
“There’s no big delay. You can continue developing the legacy and we can migrate those legacy applications while the transformations are happening and migrate them into your modern environment,” he said.
Scott also explains the steps of an automated migration in layman’s terms and how a TSRI transformation integrates cleanly into cloud services like AWS using containerization and microservices.
We of course don’t want to spoil the presentation by giving everything away, so head over to APN TV and watch for yourself to learn about how automated modernization to the cloud will save your organization time, money, and the headaches from continuing to maintain legacy systems.
Watch Scott’s APN TV appearance
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.
A major integrator contracted with The Software Revolution, Inc. (TSRI) to transform 1.8 million lines of DATACOM COBOL code and comments into Java/JEE to support the modernization assessment for a major federal timekeeping system. As a major military organization with multiple security requirements, TSRI needed to meet NAVWAR coding standards, which ensure that modernized mission-critical systems like NAVSSI will work as smoothly on its target architecture as it did on the previous mainframe architecture.
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Customer: Department of Homeland Security Source & Target Language: Cobol to Java Lines of Code: 1,800,000 Duration: 8 months Services: Code Transformation, Automated Refactoring, Installation and Testing Support, Remote Support for Customer Acceptance, Transformation Blueprint®
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The Defense User Registration System (DURS) of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) consisted of a UNISYS 2200 COBOL application running within the DPS form-based presentation system (DPS 1100). DURS required conversion into a Java/J2SE multi-tiered application to support DTIC modernization requirements.
Using automation to modernize mainframe applications will bring a codebase to today’s common coding standards and architectures. But in many cases, modernization to an application’s functional equivalent isn’t always enough. Organizations can do more to make their modern code more efficient and readable. By building refactoring phases into their modernization projects, organizations can eliminate the Pandora’s box of dead or non-functional code that many developers don’t want to open, especially if it contains elements that just don’t work.
Using TSRI’s automated refactoring engine, remediation was complete in an hour.
What is Refactoring and How is it Used?
Refactoring, by definition, is an iterative process that automatically identifies and remediates pattern-based issues throughout a modernized application’s codebase. For example, unreferenced variables or unnecessary redundant snippets could exist throughout the application. This scan, known as dead/redundant code refactoring, will find repetitions of any of this unusable code to flag, then remove it from the codebase. One of TSRI’s current projects found 25,000 instances of a similar issue that would have required 15 minutes of manual remediation per instance—not including the inevitable introduction of human error that would require further remediation. The number of development hours would take more than a year for a single developer to complete.
Using TSRI’s automated refactoring engine, however, remediation was complete in an hour.
Calling refactoring its own post-modernization phase is, in some ways, misleading. Refactoring typically occurs all the way through an automated mainframe transformation. As an example, in a typical COBOL or PL/1 mainframe modernization, TSRI would refactor the code from a monolithic application to a multi-tier application, with Java or C# handling back-end logic, a relational database layer through a Database Access Object (DAO) layer, and the user interface (screens) modernized in a web-based format. Believe it or not, many legacy applications still run on 3270 green-screens or other terminals, like in the graphic below.
Once the automated modernization of the legacy application is complete, the application has become a functionally equivalent, like-for-like system. However, any deprecated code, functions that may have never worked as planned, or routines that were written but never implemented will still exist. A process written in perhaps 1981—or even 1961—may have taken far more code to execute than a simple microservice could handle today.
Situations like this are where refactoring becomes indispensable.
Where to begin?
Before a formal refactoring process can begin, it’s important to understand your goals and objectives, such as performance, quality, cybersecurity, and maintainability. This will typically mean multiple workshops to define which areas of the modernized codebase need attention and the best candidates for refactoring, based upon the defined goals. These refactorings will either be semi-automated (fully automated with some human input) or custom written (based upon feedback from code scanners or subject-matter experts.)
The refactoring workshops can reveal many different candidates for refactoring:
What are the Challenges?
In conclusion, while an automated modernization will quickly and accurately transform legacy mainframe applications to a modern, functionally equivalent, cloud-based or hybrid architecture, refactoring will make the application durable and reliable into the future.
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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.
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.
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Customer: Retail Client Source & Target Language: COBOL to C# Lines of Code: 86,000 Duration: 3 months
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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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"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. |
Kirkland, WA. (March 12, 2010) – One of the best kept secrets in Washington DC is that our nation’s veterans already have a comprehensive electronic health care record (EHR) that for decades has supported delivery of quality health care at more than a 160 VHA hospitals around the world. That extraordinary system is VistA, the Veteran Information System Technical Architecture. Written in MUMPS, VistA serves as the vital backbone of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Electronic Health Care Record System (EHRS) that manages medical record data and delivers medical informatics to the veteran’s bedside while tracking and managing 100% of veteran’s health care electronically throughout his journey through the VHA medical care system.Visit the VHA’s OpenVistA® Transformation Blueprint at http://www.tsri.com/open-vista |
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Ironically, VistA like many systems that are highly successful, is now threatened with self-extinction due to its need for continuous growth and the inability of MUMPS, the language it is written in, to sustain its continued evolution. VistA suffers from a form of software arthritis common among many legacy systems. Due to its age, size and complexity VistA is brittle, inflexible and resistant to change, and its maintenance costs have gone through the roof, compromising the VHA’s ability to grow and evolve Vista as the foundation for a 21st century medical delivery system for its veterans. In 2005 the VHA estimated automated modernization of VistA could save the VHA upwards of $3 Billion compared to redevelopment, or manual replacement. With the announcement today by The Software Revolution, Inc (TSRI), (the world-leading supplier of architecture driven modernization (ADM-based) solutions), of its open-source Transformation Blueprint ® for OpenVistA, TSRI has made a huge start on this daunting challenge. For those who might care to understand, the OpenVistA Transformation Blueprint ® is a major step towards achievement of the VHA's goal of modernizing its Electronic Healthcare Record system for its veterans. TSRI’s OpenVistA® Transformation Blueprint ® provides the complete target Java code and UML design for the transformation of all 2.1 Million lines of OpenVistA® and 120,000+ lines of Fileman MUMPS code. The OpenVistA® Transformation Blueprint ® is far more than a mere language translation. It is a massive multi-million page (300GB) web-based software design and architecture document consisting of navigable hypertext of the 'As-Is' MUMPS and 'To-Be Java' hyperlinked to hundreds of thousands of State Machine Graphs, Cause-Effect Graphs, State-Transition Tables, Control Flow Graphs, Data-Flow Graphs, Structure Charts, Data Element Tables, Class Diagrams expressed as scalable graphical diagrams that richly document all of the MUMPS and target Java/J2EE code. The Transformation Blueprint ® is both an application portfolio as well as a complete architectural roadmap towards a modernized OpenVistA® and Fileman. Every statement of MUMPS in OpenVistA® is shown side-by-side with its transformation into Java/ J2EE along with an extensive array of software property-oriented metric indices (e.g. fan-in, fan-out, complexity, redundancy, dead code, etc) for navigation to the code measured by the property. To learn more about TSRI’s transformation of OpenVistA® and the company’s plans for evolving OpenVistA® towards a modernized universal EHR system of the future, read the Chapter 12 casestudy: Veterans Health Administration’s VistA MUMPS Modernization Pilot in William Ulrich and Philip Newcomb’s new book Information Systems Transformation: Architecture-Driven Modernization CaseStudies, just published by Morgan Kaufmann, February 2010 as part of the Object Management Group (OMG) OMG Series.
Information Systems Transformation: Architecture-Driven Modernization Casestudies |
| 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. |
One of the largest Japanese Car Manufactures now uses TSRI’s modernization methods to increase efficiency in their manufacturing systems. With the help of systems integrator Comture Corporation, TSRI was able to successfully transform 120k lines of COBOL to Java, in a three-week time-period, with over 99% automation levels.
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United States Air Force SBSS ILS-S COBOL to Java on AWS Modernization
A major component of the system is 54 years old, written in COBOL, and provides retail-level business logic. The component runs on mainframes that have proven to be extremely difficult to change and manage, and the DoD needed to modernize the component to drive down operating costs and move to an open platform, while retaining all functionality....
