Mainframe Apps on AWS? Yes! Really…….

For so many of the world’s largest IT organizations applications literally mean business. They keep the operations ticking over, and without them the organization would be unable to function. Many of those systems have been relied upon over years, built on the solid foundation of the COBOL language. COBOL’s continued evolution is now in its 6th decade, and Micro Focus’s unrivalled support of COBOL across dozens of leading platforms means that when bullet-proof core systems need contemporary levels of flexibility, COBOL and the Cloud become a natural, low-risk option. It’s no wonder that Micro Focus sees more and more Cloud instances running enterprise COBOL applications than ever.

Mainframe Redeployment in AWS … because Applications Mean Business

With such credentials managing and supporting so many clients, Micro Focus’s technology must clearly possess the necessary attributes and capabilities to support robust workload deployment. What do we mean by robust? What sort of workload are we talking about here?

We’ve already mentioned COBOL of course – and as the market leading COBOL compiler vendor for over 40 years, Micro Focus’ credentials in that space are unmatched. But isn’t there more to it than just COBOL when considering mainframe workload?

Micro Focus’s Modernization Blueprint

Any viable solution must provide the ability to re-host (move) mainframe applications with minimum change to the clients chosen future infrastructure – Linux, Windows or UNIX, either on premise or in the cloud.  This will require the transition of mainframe-proprietary data such as DB2, IMS-DB, QSAM and VSAM data into alternative database and file systems. The solution must also provide robust and comprehensive support for online CICS and IMS applications, as well as offer a batch environment to support the move of current jobs, job control and batch utilities. In addition, full support of COBOL (and PL/I) applications running in a compatible environment is imperative.

Technical validation of such an important solution needs to ensure the levels of support for the mainframe environment being replicated is rock-solid, and supports the key technical characteristics of the applications to be hosted in the Cloud. The above is a sensible checklist for many common mainframe applications – as well as a list of Micro Focus’s mainframe compatibility credentials.

An important consideration is to evaluate not just the tools required to undertake the transition of the workload in question, but also to determine operational processes of planning, analysis, transition, development/change, debugging, unit testing and functional testing required, as well as a more formalised QA process. Micro Focus provides a blueprint for both the transitional activities as well as the future reference architecture as part of its comprehensive project planning process. Only Micro Focus provides the breadth and depth of required support for mainframe workload, as well as integration with preferred 3rd party tools (e.g. Database Vendors).

Additional success criteria such as user acceptance and performance benchmarking are going to be important factors.  Customer testimonials provide important evidence of significant performance improvements under the new Micro Focus environment.

A proven partnership

Technical credentials are vital components of a low-risk solution but so too needs to be the operational support necessary to run core business processes in a cloud infrastructure. Such a modernization project also needs the customer to rely on the following fundamental business partnership attributes for success from their vendors:

– Full 24×7 support for core business-critical IT operations to resolve any project issues
– A demonstrated global scale and significant market presence
– A proven track record of significant numbers of satisfied customers
– A decades-old heritage and future strategy of technology investments
– A worldwide Systems Integrator and delivery partner ecosystem

Any weakness in the robustness, size and strength of operations diminishes the likelihood that such a transformational operational change can be undertaken without risk. Micro Focus’ 40 year history, hundreds of successful modernization projects, thousands of clients, world-class partner network and tens of millions of annual investment is unrivalled in the modernization space.

If your next strategic decision is around deploying mainframe workload to the Cloud, be sure to look at your vendors’ ability not only to provide genuine enterprise class technical capability, but also their ability as an organization to remain your partner for the next generation of these core applications.

Conclusion: Micro Focus and Amazon Web Services – A smart choice for Cloud deployment

There are many and varied opportunities to leverage technology to support digital transformation. An overwhelming majority of the market is choosing Cloud as a genuine, viable platform for future growth. Leading the charge in the Cloud space is the Amazon Web Services solution. By supporting mainframe workload on AWS, Micro Focus is adding a final ingredient necessary to take the opportunities truly enterprise scale with its incomparable capabilities for workload flexibility.

With a proven track record of many hundreds of successful platform re-hosting projects, Micro Focus holds significant expertise in the field, and its comprehensive technology offering – developed over three decades – supports the entire life cycle of both transition but also ongoing maintenance and modernization of those core systems. No other vendor comes close to this level of capability or experience.

Micro Focus is proud to be attending, presenting and sponsoring the Re:Invent show in Vegas (November) and the AWS Transformation Day in London (October). We look forward to meeting you there.

Meantime, find the Micro Focus and AWS webinar and white paper here or find me on Twitter to discuss anything that interests you….

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