EvolveWare’s S2T® Tools Provide End-to-End Automation in Documenting, SOA Enabling and Migrating Mainframe Applications

Migrating legacy code to modern technologies, while resulting in substantial savings in maintenance and support, is a risky, time-consuming and tedious task when performed manually. If enterprises are to pursue these initiatives it is important that a methodology be used that involves substantial automation.

Based in Silicon Valley with facilities in India, EvolveWare (www.evolveware.com) won IT Week magazine’s Top 50 2006 Technology Innovator award. A new entrant in the legacy migration space, they have developed tools that provide end-to-end automated documentation, transformation and migration of COBOL, Adabas/Natural and Assembler systems.

“While other tools serve as support aids for manual services, EvolveWare’s tools use manual services for support only,” says Peter Brodsgaard, their vice president of business development. We talked further about EvolveWare’s tools with Peter.

WFS: Peter, why is it imperative today for firms to move legacy applications to newer, more cost effective architectures?

PB: Personnel supporting legacy applications are ageing rapidly and there is very little talent pool available as replacement even on a worldwide basis, a shortage that is increasing legacy maintenance costs at an alarming rate.

WFS: And cutting into IT budgets?

PB: Yes and when you add the fact that legacy applications are not easily shareable across the enterprise, it becomes clear why modernization is becoming a high priority initiative of IT departments.

WFS: Still, why are there so many firms apprehensive about taking this on?

PB: In most cases, legacy apps have been running for years with owners having no idea of what logic is embedded in them. The effort to understand and migrate these apps is risky, time-consuming and expensive – when executed manually. What is required instead are tools that substantially automate the entire process end-to-end.

WFS: Then what is the absolute must-have before finalizing on any legacy modernization strategy?

PB: ‘Know what you have.’ Without knowing the embedded business logic, it is impossible to make the correct decision to re-host, retire or migrate legacy applications.

WFS: How can firms mitigate the risk and cost of legacy modernization?

PB: By automating the legacy moderniza-tion process as much as possible. The risk of inconsistency due to manual services and the risk of obsolescence due to the time involved dictate the use of automation to the maximum extent.

WFS: Let’s talk about automation. Which key factors differentiate your automation tools?

PB: There are six, starting first with our modular solution. EvolveWare’s S2T automation tools offer any client the option to license one base module with multiple source and target modules. By the way, S2T stands for ‘Any Source-2-Any Target.’

Second, unlike most other solutions, EvolveWare’s S2T tools provide end-to-end automation.

Third, our fully automated solutions offer up to 100% automation rate for documentation and transformation into objects and components; and 75-90% for migration to Visual Basic, C# and Java/J2EE.

Next is the fact that we extract business rules and data models in addition to the program logic. The extracted rules and logic are represented as pseudo code and as graphical flowcharts, hyperlinked to the source code they originated from.

Fifth is our presentation layer and extensive “search” capability. Our tools present the extracted information in HTML format.

WFS: Number six?

PB: Our tools provide transformation from procedural code to an object-oriented model.

WFS: Savings are obviously a major part of the modernization decision tree. What type of savings in time and cost can customers expect when using your tools compared to other available solutions?

PB: Depending upon the automation rate achieved, you can expect 45% to 60% in time savings and 35% to 50% in cost savings.

WFS: Impressive.

PB: Thanks. Our customers agree.