Software Migration

SOFTWARE MIGRATION – A REAL ALTERNATIVE

A profes­sio­nally reali­sed software migration means

  • safeguar­ding indivi­dua­lity, know-how and unique selling points
  • paving the way for future-proof platforms and develo­p­ment environments
  • opening up the modern world of infor­ma­tion and communication
  • preser­ving indepen­dence of proprie­tary manufac­tu­r­ers and licence products
  • saving time and costs

Compared to a new develo­p­ment, a software migration has the decisive advan­tage that it requi­res less effort. Experi­ence from several projects proves a ratio of 1:8. If a migration project has an expec­ted scope of 15 man-years (which is a quite common time span), for example, about 120 man-years would have to be calcu­la­ted for a develo­p­ment from scratch.

A software migration usually embraces all compon­ents of a legacy system (program­mes, screens, files, jobs, middle­ware, databases).

Software migration can only be reali­sed successfully with sophisti­ca­ted conver­sion tools. The tools must work in analogy to a compi­ler to map complex compi­ling proces­ses in a seman­ti­cally equiva­lent way. The develo­p­ment of such tools requi­res detailed knowledge of compi­ler technology.

The graphic shows the migration paths supported by us and the software tools used accordingly.

Over the last 30 years, we have successfully reali­sed migration projects – on time and on budget. Naturally, our experi­ence gained over the years flows into current and future migration projects.

Software migration: migration paths und conversion tools at pro et con

WHY NO OFF-THE-SHELF STANDARD SOFTWARE?

Anzüge von der Stange
standard_software_en_4_3

“We combine […] a histo­ri­cally grown
corpo­rate culture with innova­tive ideas, special commit­ment and a very indivi­dual service […] The provi­ders of standard software can […] offer neither such a speed of innova­tion nor the degree of indivi­dua­li­sa­tion that is neces­sary for our special business.”

Gerd Simon,
Direc­tor & CIO at Beren­berg Bank,
Computerwoche

WHY NO NEW DEVELO­P­MENT ON A GREEN­FIELD SITE?

Anzüge von der Stange
new_development_en_4_3

“Some compa­nies
strive for develo­ping COBOL appli­ca­ti­ons in a diffe­rent programming language. However, due to the scope and age of the code, a company would have to expect a duration of eight to ten years for such projects”

Pierre Gronau,
IT Consul­tant & COBOL Expert,
„IT & Karriere“ 2/2023

WHY SOFTWARE MIGRATION WITH US?

Our pecBOX includes a coordi­na­ted collec­tion of sophisti­ca­ted conver­sion tools based on scien­ti­fic exper­tise in compi­ler technology.

Each migration project follows a defined „roadmap“ that has been tried and tested in practice and is custo­mi­sed to indivi­dual custo­mer requi­re­ments. We have decades of experi­ence in the successful orchestra­tion of migration projects. All projects have been comple­ted on time and on budget.

The tools have reached a maturity that enables an automa­tion level of 95–99 %. During the migration project, no “code freeze” is requi­red, as the high automa­tion level allows for conver­ting and testing the develo­ped program­mes again at any time.

Thanks to our meta tools (parser genera­tors) during tool develo­p­ment, the conver­sion tools can be quickly adapted to new project requirements.

A legacy moder­ni­sa­tion in a short project term and without code freeze can only be successfully reali­sed with tool-supported software migration.

SOFTWARE MIGRATION AND AI

The British compu­ter scien­tist Alan Turing is regarded as one of the most influ­en­tial pioneers in the field of artifi­cial intel­li­gence (AI). In 1950, he formu­la­ted an intel­li­gence test for compu­ters: a compu­ter is intel­li­gent if, in a conver­sa­tion with it, a person cannot recog­nise whether it is a compu­ter or a human.

Today, Turin­g’s visions have become reality. By recog­nis­ing statis­ti­cal corre­la­ti­ons between words, AI language models can deter­mine the most likely next word (seman­tic proba­bi­lity) and enable human-like communication.

The current areas of appli­ca­tion for AI go far beyond commu­ni­ca­tion. The use of AI in software migration is also currently being propa­ga­ted (e.g. IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z). This raises the question: what are the possi­bi­li­ties and limits of AI in software migration?

To find out more about this question, see our analy­ses, test results and comments:

Software migration with AI: hand of a business man holding an AI crystal ball with question marks around

DOWNLOADS

“Migration des Südlea­sing COBOL-Kernban­ken-Systems nach JAVA mit einem itera­tiv-­inkre­men­tel­len Ansatz”
Abstract for 24th “Workshop Software-Reengi­nee­ring & Evolu­tion” 2–4 May 2022 in Bad Honnef, published in:
Software­tech­nik-Trends, volume 42, part 2, May 2022

“Jedes COBOL-Java-Migra­ti­ons­pro­jekt birgt neue Überraschungen”
Abstract for 24th “Workshop Software-Reengi­nee­ring & Evolu­tion” 2–4 May 2022 in Bad Honnef, published in:
Software­tech­nik-Trends, volume 42, part 2, May 2022

“Toolba­sierte Software-Migration nach Plan”
Abstract for 18th “Workshop Software-Reengi­nee­ring & Evolu­tion” 2–4 May 2016 in Bad Honnef, published in:
Software­tech­nik-Trends, volume 36, part 2, May 2016

“Aus Alt mach Neu – automa­tisch! Migra­ti­ons­pro­jekte erfolg­reich planen und realisieren”
Article by Dr. Uwe Kaiser (pro et con), published in:
Business Technology, release 03/2014, page 41

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