IEF/IEF by Composer/COOL:

Model driven development for the last 20 years
Gen/Advantage Gen/AllFusion Gen and now CA Gen... a wonderful product that has helped many
Fortune 2000 organizations over the years. As technology moved on some of the users of Gen
technology has decided to make a change and abandon this platform. If you are contemplating this
move, or have already decided to move, please feel free to speak to us.

Want to migrate from Gen?

In life, the only constant is change
Our experience with migrations coupled with our unique automated migration solution allows the rapid, customizable, flexible yet robust imgration to a new platform.

Gen Migration? Question ...

The question is not about whether Gen is a good or a bad technology whether it better or worse than its competitors, but really about whether  it still makes sense within your business today and if not whether you are considering a migration away from it! With that in mind we can begin by examining the technology in question and our solution to the question of migration.

20 years ago, Repository based technology, and Gen in particular was an idea whose time had come. There is no question that it was revolutionary and there is no question that to many it delivered on its promise. However, for many reasons, today this is a technology whose time has passed. Consider the dwindling customer base, the increasing shortage of specialist skills, the lack of investment in the development of the technology, and it should become evident that any system currently based on Gen is based on a  ”burning"  technology!

So the question you should be asking is; what should I be doing about it?
Well there are several possible answers to this question, but the right one for you will depend on your specific set of circumstances and needs.  However, the circumstances and needs for which we believe we can offer a ready set of solutions, are the following:

 1)      I believe that my systems are strategic and /or still meet the business requirements, thus adding significant value to the business

2)      I am concerned about the ability of my systems to take advantage of new technology now and in the future 

3)      I am concerned about the costs associated with running my existing systems, including:

a.       Software licence and maintenance fees

b.       Staff and consulting fees

c.       Hardware costs

4)      I am concerned about the risk of not being able to adequately support my systems, now and in the future, because of the lack of appropriately skilled resources

5)      I am concerned about my company’s relationship with my software vendor and our perception of their level of dedication to our cause.

If you can identify with two or more of the issues listed above then we can help you!

Gen Migration? Answer ...

MigrationWare is a company that is uniquely placed to provide a set of solution that will allow you to preserve your investments made in Gen technology, whilst at the same time move those same investments to open, agile, extendable contemporary platforms and technologies.

 We are uniquely placed because we possess two prerequisites that allow us to provide automated solutions to Gen migrations. The first of these prerequisites is that as a migrations company, we specialise specifically in the development of automation tools. These tools are based on compiler technology that parse, validate, analyse and generate code. We have over the years developed a broad set of automated solutions that provide in some cases 100% automation for the migration of application code between platforms.

 The second prerequisite is knowledge and understanding of the internals of Gen technology and in particular the repository. Gen as a technology was, ofcourse, developed for the very purpose of enabling code generation by the Gen product itself.  The manner in which the required information is stored and the means of access to this information, all contribute towards enabling code generation of the highest calibre.

 It is for these two reasons that MigrationWare are able to generate code that is well structured and easy to maintain.  Since nearly 100 % of the code is automatically generated, all deliverables are consistent and uniform.  In this way by ensuring processes and outputs are always repeatable, the migration project costs and risks are significantly reduced. 

 Also because the consistency of the conversion is guaranteed, migration project timescales can be accurately predicted thus ensuring that the projects are run on time and within budget.

So what of the output, what does that look like?
The choice of target output language and technology is as follows:

1)      COBOL

2)      CICS

3)      DB2, SQL Server, Oracle

4)      JCL, Shell scripts, Win BAT

 COBOL is a natural choice and the one that places the migrated application on the best possible strategic footing. COBOL remains the dominant language in the areas of  serious, high-performance applications development and is highly portable  since it is supported on  nearly every possible  Mainframe, Unix, Linux and Windows platform. Given that Gen code is procedural in nature, the only option ,  when providing an automated solution,  is to generate procedural code. In this respect COBOL importantly lends itself to being used in procedural programming.  

Once converted the generated application may be deployed on to any platform which  supports COBOL , including the Mainframe.  The use of Micro Focus COBOL,  for example,  will ensure that the converted application may be deployed on any of the 37 Micro Focus supported  platforms including most variants ofUnix, Linux  and Windows.

How to progress?

Firstly we need to understand the makeup of your application, we need to understand the size and configuration requirements of your systems, so that we in turn can process this information into something useful to you, namely a proposal that will include, price, project duration, roles and responsibilities and project execution.

In order for us to gather the information we require, we have compiled a questionnaire, that we will send to you and which you will need to complete and return to us. With that information the ball will be back in our court and we will be able to calculate various elements of the conversion and propose the way forward.

Typically the way forward would include the following elements: A Proof of  Concept, based on a representative sample of your application environment. The objective of the POC is to remove any concerns you may have around our ability to deliver on our promise. Clearly, the scope of a POC needs to be carefully considered, because the broader the scope of the POC the more costly it becomes, and this in part nullifies the objectives for the POC which are to limit your cost exposure,   but cover your risks  by doing just enough to provide you with the feeling of confidence that you require.

Following a successful POC, the way is  now open for the execution of the  main  project. The elements of this include: the Discovery phase (Planning and analysis of the  full migration inventory), the Pilot phase (implement and refine process, strategy and assumptions),  the Main  Project execution phase (execute project based on information gathered from the Discovery and Pilot phases)  and  the Support and Warranty phase ( f ollowing successful delivery  to provide  ongoing technical support for an agreed period of time).

Some other points to consider!

 A Gen migration is principally about delivering a converted Gen application either on to the same platform or onto an alternative platform. Yet, this project can also be about more than simply eliminating Gen, it can also be about delivering a modernised application with enhanced features, such as a new database management systems and SOA.

 MigrationWare can also deliver on these other elements. Database migrations are a common requirements of a modernisation project, and MigrationWare can deliver conversion from non-relational DBMS such as IMS to a relational  DBMS, or from DB2 to an alternative relational DBMS  such as Oracle or SQL Server .