IBM Mainframe Migrations

Today, businesses running on mainframes are searching for ways to take advantage of the reduced costs and newer features of current hardware platforms as well as ways to reduce the risk of remaining locked-in to aging mainframe technologies. However, at the same time they have made very large investments in these platforms which tend to be fine-tuned to the business processes of their organizations.

Datatek has been a firm advocate for the cause of businesses retaining those investments. Too many companies have tried to throw away their valuable business logic in return for an off-the-shelf software package with a high price tag, required extensive (and costly) customization, and required their business processes to change to meet the requirements of the software. Put simply, the software no longer served the business, the business served the software. Other companies who saw the value of their business logic tried to use large pools of cheap programmer labor to migrate/convert it. In return, they received missed timelines, escalating costs with every change they wanted during the process, and all the problems of having “too many cooks in the kitchen.”

Migrating off of an IBM mainframe platform requires addressing a wide range of intertwined issues ranging from the conversion or replacement of:

• Programming languages (PL/I, Assembler, COBOL, ...)
• Data access (IMS, flat file, DB2, ...)
• Subsystems (CICS, JCL, BMS, ...)
• Products (DYL, Sort, ...)

Given the complexity of these systems, automated migrations are the only reasonable approach to moving to a new platform. Automated migrations provide the flexibility of allowing the client to continue to manage/modify their systems for daily business operations while also providing the flexibility to make changes during the migration cycle. Datatek takes automated migrations to the next evolutionary step with its customized automated migration (CAM) service. No two businesses are alike and often one business needs something migrated in a much different manner than is required by another business. Using Datatek’s CAM service, companies are no longer forced into the only option of “whatever the tool generates.”

For over 30 years, Datatek has been migrating businesses off of a variety of legacy systems by providing cost effective, low-risk, and customizable migration solutions. Contact a Datatek representative to see how our technical and innovative solutions can solve your mainframe migration needs.

• Contact Datatek

Strategic Partners