If you are searching about legacy migration you might have heard about legacy modernization to open source software (also known as OSS). So have you ever wondered if this would be a reasonable step to take? Maybe you need some more information about open source, first.
Open-source software is the kind of software that provides its source code open to public, so that anyone is able to copy, modify and redistribute it without paying royalties or fees. The code can evolve through community cooperation. Often someone who started an open-source project ends up as a large company. Many producers of OSS offer trainings or Service-level-agreements (SLAs), which is a part of a service contract where a service is formally defined.
Examples of open-source software products are the web-browser Mozilla Firefox and the operating system Linux. The expectation by switching to OSS is most of the times to save money – and it is true: Such products are most of the times for free or really cheap implemented, why license costs can be saved. Nevertheless, adoptions and extensions might be necessary, as well as trainings and other external services. So license costs should not be the only reason to switch to OSS without further investigations.
Other relevant topics when thinking about implementing OSS in a company would be the data privacy and IT security. A lot of questions need to be answered here: Where and how will data be saved or shared and how could the systems be controlled? Might there be a possibility for developers to control the system unnoticed and grab data out of it? All those questions regarding security topics should be verified by experts.
So as you can see: It is not always easy to decide, which software to switch to due to cost reduction or due to just modernize your systems. But don't worry: We will keep on writing about legacy modernization, legacy migration or whatever you want to call it. Please stay tuned and feel free to leave a comment!
Showing posts with label Automated Migration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Automated Migration. Show all posts
Friday, October 18, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Migration: A Topic of Information Technology or the Physical Movement by Humans?
If you just type in “migration” into your favorite search engine, you might find different results. Some are about sociology, like the physical movement by humans, some might be about animals traveling in search for a new habit, but you also might find results regarding information technology.
Congratulations! If that is what you are looking for, you found it. But what exactly is a migration when we talk about information technology? First of all you should know that there are some different migrations to think of. We can talk about a data migration, an architecture migration, a software migration and a language migration. Broadly speaking, it is about software and hardware migration. However, for today let’s just talk about what kind of changes are possible when we talk about migration in general.
First of all there is the update, also known as patch. Here everything stays within the software product line. There should be no big troubles embedding the latest version into the system environment and all updates should however be possible and from this time on useable without special trained staff. And of course: Nobody has to get new devices due to the update and also nobody has to get a new software license.
Need more than just a software update?
The next form of a migration would be the upgrade. This is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, so that the upgrade affects the product itself or the compatibility with its environment. Here again, everything stays within the software product line. Existing databases can be migrated with little effort and therefore sufficient tools are provided by the producer, so that no external support is needed.
The kind of migration that has the most impact is for sure the one which replaces a whole system so in this case; we leave the software product line or skip at least one generation of the product. In most cases there is a lack of required migration tools and therefore experts are needed to ensure the overall functionality of the system.
So if you ever consider the last form of migration, be aware that there are two ways to think of it: You can either choose a target date on which the migration will take place at a time or you might consider a step-by-step migration. Sounds interesting? More on that later… Thanks for following our blog!
Congratulations! If that is what you are looking for, you found it. But what exactly is a migration when we talk about information technology? First of all you should know that there are some different migrations to think of. We can talk about a data migration, an architecture migration, a software migration and a language migration. Broadly speaking, it is about software and hardware migration. However, for today let’s just talk about what kind of changes are possible when we talk about migration in general.
First of all there is the update, also known as patch. Here everything stays within the software product line. There should be no big troubles embedding the latest version into the system environment and all updates should however be possible and from this time on useable without special trained staff. And of course: Nobody has to get new devices due to the update and also nobody has to get a new software license.
Need more than just a software update?
The next form of a migration would be the upgrade. This is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, so that the upgrade affects the product itself or the compatibility with its environment. Here again, everything stays within the software product line. Existing databases can be migrated with little effort and therefore sufficient tools are provided by the producer, so that no external support is needed.
The kind of migration that has the most impact is for sure the one which replaces a whole system so in this case; we leave the software product line or skip at least one generation of the product. In most cases there is a lack of required migration tools and therefore experts are needed to ensure the overall functionality of the system.
So if you ever consider the last form of migration, be aware that there are two ways to think of it: You can either choose a target date on which the migration will take place at a time or you might consider a step-by-step migration. Sounds interesting? More on that later… Thanks for following our blog!
Friday, May 17, 2013
Do we really need to think about legacy modernization?
If you hear the term “data migration”, it might send a chill down your spine. It doesn't matter, whether you work as a CEO or as a secretary: sometimes you might feel, that something regarding your work with the computer goes wrong or things just should not be the way they are. Then you maybe find yourself swearing at the computer but anyhow thinking: “Never change a running system”.
But what if you always find yourself in trouble, even if the problems are not that big? So first of all, you might want to figure out, whether a legacy modernization or a migration is necessary for your company and could help you, to get your work done more relaxed.
A good way to start this is to take a look outside your window. Relax and think about the following questions – but please: be true to yourself!
What does that mean? Well, you first of all should consider, that changing a running system, might be a good thing. As the American writer Alvin Toffler said in 1970: “Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life.”
If this now has been a kick-off for you, to finally become an interest in the topics related to data migration or architecture migration, it would be a pleasure for us to welcome you as a new follower of our blog. Stay tuned for the next articles, in which we offer you more information about what migration is and how it could look like.
But what if you always find yourself in trouble, even if the problems are not that big? So first of all, you might want to figure out, whether a legacy modernization or a migration is necessary for your company and could help you, to get your work done more relaxed.
A good way to start this is to take a look outside your window. Relax and think about the following questions – but please: be true to yourself!
- Do you still have (enough) technical support for your legacy systems?
- Do you have more and more problems with downtime? If yes, how does this affect your work?
- Do you have problems, recruiting new qualified employees, who can deal with your legacy systems?
- Do you sometimes think, that you are way too inflexible with all your legacy systems and wish for more extensions, interfaces or an improved usability?
- Do you have to deal with data security issues, because your legacy systems don´t accomplish the standards?
What does that mean? Well, you first of all should consider, that changing a running system, might be a good thing. As the American writer Alvin Toffler said in 1970: “Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life.”
If this now has been a kick-off for you, to finally become an interest in the topics related to data migration or architecture migration, it would be a pleasure for us to welcome you as a new follower of our blog. Stay tuned for the next articles, in which we offer you more information about what migration is and how it could look like.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Modernization of our Blog
Dear reader,
Starting now we are going to modernize our migration blog. From now on we will offer you blog entries with information and news about automated migration and related topics, such as legacy modernization, more frequent.
So stay tuned and lets have fun. If you visit us for the first time, it would be our pleasure to welcome you as a new follower.
Your PASS Consulting Team
Starting now we are going to modernize our migration blog. From now on we will offer you blog entries with information and news about automated migration and related topics, such as legacy modernization, more frequent.
So stay tuned and lets have fun. If you visit us for the first time, it would be our pleasure to welcome you as a new follower.
Your PASS Consulting Team
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Success Story
Any doubts about migration? PASS Consulting took the challenge and has been very successfully with his migration projects.
KfW Bankengruppe, Germany’s third largest bank, trusted PASS to replace its PL/I based system with a Java based system. Here is their feedback:
“Through this pilot project, the KfW has gained assurance and a new degree of freedom regarding the IT STRATEGY 2020. We now know that a 100% automated migration using the PASS Migration Factory is viable. The results of the migration are sustainable and will be very useful for further development. In addition, the demands we set for code quality and performance were completely fulfilled.” (Volker Scheringer, Director, IT Strategy 2020)
Friday, August 24, 2012
Migrating From Legacy Applications?
Legacy applications are firms’ applications that are based on old and sometimes outdated programming languages. For most large companies, they are an everyday challenge. Usually found within critical applications, legacy systems continue to be used as they still deliver value performing daily tasks even though newer and more efficient methods exist.
A recent survey from Nexaweb Technologies revealed that, out of 750 IT professionals, 88% claimed to have a problematic legacy application burden, with 57% of which categorize their problem as “serious” or “very serious”.
Buy, Develop or Migrate?
To deal with legacy systems companies can take different paths: buy or develop a new application, or migrate. They have to chose which approach should be followed according factors such as size of the project, the level of customizations, how critical the application is, and maintainability.
With buying a new system, companies have to keep in mind that each business has its own specifics and applications rarely meet the exact needs of firms. For that reason further developments at an extra cost are required for customization. Development of a new application allows more flexibility and results in a product that exactly fits the customer’s needs. Nevertheless the bigger and the more complex the application is the more difficult it will be to redevelop. By purchasing or developing, companies need to carefully test the replacement and the risk of errors, bugs, or misconceptions is high (unlike migration with Service Orientated Architecture (SOA).
Migration differs from the two previous methods in that it actually takes the old application and translates it into a modern version. It also reuses the original systems’ business logic which guarantees that the migrated application will be functionally identical to the original. The legacy applications have been operational for several years or even decades, they are tested and work 100%. With the right migration code and cross platform technology, the migrated application will be correct, plus with the Build to Order technology the modern version will exactly fit company's expectations.
Types of Migration
Companies can perform three types of migration from 0% to 100% automatic. Manual migration is about re-writing all the lines of codes by hand. Imagine here one developer sitting on a desk with two screens, in the first he reads Cobol and in the second he writes Java. That solution makes sense for very small applications, probably less than 10 000 lines of code. In contrast, with automated migration a program reads Cobol and writes Java. What is interesting with this method is that automation makes the process both faster and safer (see previous post for more details about automated migration, cross platform technology and SOA).
Legacy applications are generally huge (typically millions of lines of codes) and often complicated (given that they are critical), a program will translate faster and make less mistakes than a developer. Next to the “line-per-line”-approach, automatic migration can also use smart patterns to detect and change programmatic concepts. In doing so, architectural changes according to the program structure can be made and the converted program becomes much more flexible and maintainable. Somewhere in between, there is semi automated migration. A program will automatically migrate parts of the code and developers will manually migrate what’s left. For example if some concepts in the original system can not be translated with a feasible effort, the migration tool will leave it to the developers. The more complex and critical the application is, the more automated the migration should be.
IT migration as a strategic move
Even though IT execs acknowledge the need of moving away from legacy applications, and that relevant technology exists, it is what business executives think that matters. They are those who decide on the funding of migration projects but they are also those who don’t particularly see the challenges of IT. IT is often seen as a technical function hence the connection between IT modernization and operational concern isn’t clearly established.
Besides, in these times of economic insecurity, investments are reduced. The problem with doing so is that it is likely to offer market share to competitors who look at out of the box solutions. In 2008 Diamond Management and Technology Consultants analyzed the performances of 400 companies during the 2001 recession. According to their results companies that made the strategic decisions by being "smart about their cuts" and "successfully improving the design of their business", increased their margins by 20%. The question in then: Is migration a strategic decision?
Let’s illustrate the need of modernization with an example in the mobile phone industry: Around a decade before Apple, Nokia spend millions of dollars on research to develop touch-screen devices very similar to smartphones. Although the technology was in their hands they redirected efforts from smartphones to basic phones. In 2007 Apple came up with the iPhone and the success we all know. By sticking to old technologies Nokia progressively lost its position of world's largest maker of mobile phones. Its share price went from US$40 in 2007 to less than US$3 in 2012. In Contrast, in 2007, when Apple released the iPhone its stock was selling at about $85. By the time Job resigned in 2011, it had risen more than 350 percent. In June 2012 Nokia’s CEO even had to admit that the problems the company was facing were mainly due to the failure to anticipate the changes in the industry.
In the same way, IT modernization and the risk of aging platforms is an urge that execs should be aware of: Migration is a must; the question is not if but when!
A recent survey from Nexaweb Technologies revealed that, out of 750 IT professionals, 88% claimed to have a problematic legacy application burden, with 57% of which categorize their problem as “serious” or “very serious”.
Buy, Develop or Migrate?
To deal with legacy systems companies can take different paths: buy or develop a new application, or migrate. They have to chose which approach should be followed according factors such as size of the project, the level of customizations, how critical the application is, and maintainability.
With buying a new system, companies have to keep in mind that each business has its own specifics and applications rarely meet the exact needs of firms. For that reason further developments at an extra cost are required for customization. Development of a new application allows more flexibility and results in a product that exactly fits the customer’s needs. Nevertheless the bigger and the more complex the application is the more difficult it will be to redevelop. By purchasing or developing, companies need to carefully test the replacement and the risk of errors, bugs, or misconceptions is high (unlike migration with Service Orientated Architecture (SOA).
Migration differs from the two previous methods in that it actually takes the old application and translates it into a modern version. It also reuses the original systems’ business logic which guarantees that the migrated application will be functionally identical to the original. The legacy applications have been operational for several years or even decades, they are tested and work 100%. With the right migration code and cross platform technology, the migrated application will be correct, plus with the Build to Order technology the modern version will exactly fit company's expectations.
Types of Migration
Companies can perform three types of migration from 0% to 100% automatic. Manual migration is about re-writing all the lines of codes by hand. Imagine here one developer sitting on a desk with two screens, in the first he reads Cobol and in the second he writes Java. That solution makes sense for very small applications, probably less than 10 000 lines of code. In contrast, with automated migration a program reads Cobol and writes Java. What is interesting with this method is that automation makes the process both faster and safer (see previous post for more details about automated migration, cross platform technology and SOA).
Legacy applications are generally huge (typically millions of lines of codes) and often complicated (given that they are critical), a program will translate faster and make less mistakes than a developer. Next to the “line-per-line”-approach, automatic migration can also use smart patterns to detect and change programmatic concepts. In doing so, architectural changes according to the program structure can be made and the converted program becomes much more flexible and maintainable. Somewhere in between, there is semi automated migration. A program will automatically migrate parts of the code and developers will manually migrate what’s left. For example if some concepts in the original system can not be translated with a feasible effort, the migration tool will leave it to the developers. The more complex and critical the application is, the more automated the migration should be.
IT migration as a strategic move
Even though IT execs acknowledge the need of moving away from legacy applications, and that relevant technology exists, it is what business executives think that matters. They are those who decide on the funding of migration projects but they are also those who don’t particularly see the challenges of IT. IT is often seen as a technical function hence the connection between IT modernization and operational concern isn’t clearly established.
Besides, in these times of economic insecurity, investments are reduced. The problem with doing so is that it is likely to offer market share to competitors who look at out of the box solutions. In 2008 Diamond Management and Technology Consultants analyzed the performances of 400 companies during the 2001 recession. According to their results companies that made the strategic decisions by being "smart about their cuts" and "successfully improving the design of their business", increased their margins by 20%. The question in then: Is migration a strategic decision?
Let’s illustrate the need of modernization with an example in the mobile phone industry: Around a decade before Apple, Nokia spend millions of dollars on research to develop touch-screen devices very similar to smartphones. Although the technology was in their hands they redirected efforts from smartphones to basic phones. In 2007 Apple came up with the iPhone and the success we all know. By sticking to old technologies Nokia progressively lost its position of world's largest maker of mobile phones. Its share price went from US$40 in 2007 to less than US$3 in 2012. In Contrast, in 2007, when Apple released the iPhone its stock was selling at about $85. By the time Job resigned in 2011, it had risen more than 350 percent. In June 2012 Nokia’s CEO even had to admit that the problems the company was facing were mainly due to the failure to anticipate the changes in the industry.
In the same way, IT modernization and the risk of aging platforms is an urge that execs should be aware of: Migration is a must; the question is not if but when!
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