Getronics’ Application Replatforming to a Modern Wintel  Environment Cuts Running Costs by Nearly 50% While Boosting Performance

Getronics (www.getronics.com), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and member of the Mainframe Migration Alliance, has over 30 years of experience with mainframes worldwide.

We discussed mainframe modernization recently with Erik van Enk. Now in his tenth year at Getronics, headquartered in The Netherlands, he serves as global solutions director, application services and solutions. Utilizing Microsoft technology, Getronics is a specialist in developing enterprise-scale business solutions including desktop deployment and server migration and consolidation. Using their Workspace ICT Services, they work closely with their clients’ employees.

Applications are an essential element of the business work-space and Getronics Application Services specialize in developing, integrating, managing and maintaining clients’ business applications across the globe.

WFS: Erik, how does Getronics view the mainframe today?

EvE: The most secure and trust-worthy means of running business critical applications has traditionally been on mainframe computers. However, the operating costs of mainframes are high, as are the costs of updating and renewing the hardware. Migrating your business critical applications to a more attractive platform can provide many advantages.

WFS: For example?

EvE: Mainframe applications are simultaneously increasingly expensive and insufficiently flexible. Financial services firms today require flexible, integrated or coordinated business applications. As the business needs of a firm changes, it is important that the business applications can change with the business. In addition, as organizations focus more on their core business, they are increasingly working with partners and distributors.

WFS: Which means?

EvE: The business applications of the different parties need to be at the very least compatible with each other, if not integrated. However, mainframe applications are typically both inflexible and difficult to integrate or combine with other applications. Making changes to applications on mainframes is expensive, and there are fewer and fewer employees with knowledge of mainframe environments.

For this reason alone, legacy applications increasingly have to be replaced. But that is an expensive and risky course to follow that frequently does not deliver the desired result.

WFS: How does Getronics offer a solution?

EvE: Application replatforming. It delivers cost saving while boosting performance. I’ll explain. With application replatforming, you can migrate your mainframe applications to a cheaper, modern Wintel platform. In doing so, the functionality of your applications remains precisely the same, while the performance of the applications either remains the same or increases. By migrating your applications, you save the costs of expensive mainframe hardware and mainframe software and the additional man-hours they involve.

WFS: What type of savings are we talking about?

EvE: Savings can easily amount to 50% of the total running costs of your mainframe environment. By migrating your applications, you are also no longer dependent upon an ever-declining group of mainframe specialists. In addition, with a modern, flexible Wintel platform, you are better positioned to work together with third parties, and, by saving on time and costs, you can work more quickly and efficiently to react to changes in your market.

WFS: And, what about the Return on Investment?

EvE: For mainframe migration projects? Roughly, one year.

WFS: How do you help your clients move to this more efficient, more effective business workspace?

EvE: We’ve defined three levels of application re-platforming. On the first, we replace the hardware alone, replacing the old mainframe with a new, advanced Wintel machine. This basic level of re-platforming on its own returns considerable cost savings.

On the second level, we replace both the hardware and the database. Your information is transferred, for example, from DB2 to a Microsoft SQL server or an Oracle database. In addition to the extra reduction in costs, this level of replatforming ensures that your business data is readily available for other applications. This means that you are able to develop new applications more quickly, and can integrate them with your clients or partners when you wish to.

Finally, with our third level of applications replatforming, you can renew your old applications, either partially or completely, with the assistance of Getronics or on your own. In doing this, you can use modern programming languages and environments. If necessary, we can also assist you in doing this with our Microsoft .NET specialists.

WFS: As everyone in this space knows, modernization projects are mammoth in size and scope. Where do you begin?

EvE: We rely on a carefully controlled approach. Working closely with our clients, we follow a rather careful step-by-step approach for migrating applications. The first step is a short but intensive workshop in which we inventorize and analyze the present state of your mainframe environment.

In step two, together with our migration partners, we assess the technical possibilities of the migration.

Step three is a ‘proof of concept.’ Using the original source code of your mainframe applications and the specifications of your system, we run your applications on our Wintel test environment in one of our global datacenters.

After three to four weeks, we have the results of this test and we use these to plan and carry out the migration of your applications. You can decide when and how you want the migration to take place based on clear plans and fixed prices.

WFS: I’d like to go back to the issue of cost reduction, if you don’t mind. You said 50%, correct?

EvE: Correct. Through experience globally with clients, we have seen how application replatforming can cut running costs in half.

WFS: Undoubtedly, that frees up considerable budget dollars to renew your applications.

EvE: Yes, plus you no longer have to worry about your mainframe specialists retiring or leaving the company. Your organization can also react more quickly to the market.

As you said, we do have years of experience in how important mainframe applications are for business. For this reason, we have developed a highly focused, carefully controlled approach to migration to the extent that the end-users will not notice any disruption.

WFS: And that’s why your migrations take place in a Getronics environment?

EvE: Yes, and they’re only carried out in your business environment after extensive and complete testing has been carried out in ours. In other words, we will do everything for you.

WFS: How does Getronics work, alone or in tandem with partners?

EvE: Normally, we act as a lead contractor, bearing ultimate responsibility for the migration as a whole, in close collaboration with the customer. We also have control over the parts of the solution that other hardware and software partners will be supplying.

For instance, we’ve selected several partners for the hardware. For software, we use Micro Focus, California Software and Microsoft. As part of the lead contractor ship, Getronics will coordinate the contacts and other work of the other relevant suppliers.

WFS: Then, the role of lead contractor is important?

EvE: By all means, yes, it is crucially important due to the large number of specialized parties.