INDUSTRY :
Public Administration
APPLICATION :
Online Transactional Processing, with Batch component COBOL-IT
SOLUTION :
COBOL-IT® Compiler Suite Enterprise Edition
PREVIOUS ENVIRONMENT :
IBM Mainframe z/OS
JCL
DB2
VSAM
NEW ENVIRONMENT :
Dell Server
Red Hat Linux
IBM DB2LUW 10.x Database, db2prep*
HTWC XFRAME, XVSAM, XBM, XSPOOL, XPM JasperReports
PREVIOUS COBOL:
IBM COBOL
The Comune di Milano rehosted their online and batch Population Registration applications from an IBM z/OS Mainframe environment to a Red Hat Linux environment using COBOL-IT.
The Comune di Milano cut costs and improved performance by re-hosting their IBM Mainframe COBOL application, and migrating to COBOL-IT. With the COBOL-IT Compiler Suite Enterprise Edition, the Comune di Milano was able to preserve 100% of the functionality of their mainframe application.
“Working together with HTWC, we were able to complete this migration in just 10 months. The COBOL-IT Compiler Suite was fully integrated with HTWC’s toolset, which greatly simplified the re-hosting process. The collaboration was very strong. We were very pleased with the results.”
Hans Conte, Director of Technical Operations, Comune di Milano
The Comune di Milano
The Comune di Milano is responsible for the management of the City of Milan. The Comune di Milano has 14,000 employees. The IT Services of the Comune di Milano manages the City of Milan in the Lombardia region of Italy.
Population Registration Application (SIPO Sistema )
The Comune di Milano migrated their Population Registration application (SIPO Sistema) from the z/OS Mainframe to a Red Hat Linux operating environment. The Population Registration application consists of about 4000 programs, containing over 5 million lines of code, and provides 600 users in the City of Milan with demographic information about the Comune di Milano.
The Population Registration application was developed in the 1980’s, deployed on an IBM mainframe, and contained both CICS and Batch components. On the Mainframe, the application stored over 500 GB of data in VSAM files, DB2 database, and sequential files.
The Comune di Milano chose HTWC as their Migration Partner, because of their expertise with re-hosting mainframe applications in Open Systems environments. Together, they constructed a solution stack that included HTWC XFRAME, XVSAM, XBM, XSPOOL and XPM, in addition to Jasper Reports. They chose to implement IBM DB2LUW for the DB2 data, while migrating the IBM VSAM data to HTWC technologies using XFRAME and XVSAM. In the end, 371 tables, 10 VSAM files, and 1600 sequential files representing over 500 GB of data were converted. 15 AFP modules were converted to Jasper Reports. 1400 JCL streams were converted using HTWC tools. Performance benchmarks all passed with comparable or better times. The entire migration took less than a year, and is now running in Production and maintained by the same number of programmers.
The Decision to use COBOL-IT
When the Comune di Milano evaluated their options for lowering costs by leaving the Mainframe, they concluded that the solution set provided of cobol by COBOL-IT was the lowest cost, lowest risk re-hosting solution.
After the automated re-engineering provided by HTWC, the COBOL-IT Compiler Suite Enterprise Edition compiled the source for the Comune di Milano’s applications with no incompatibilities. Performance benchmarks all passed. Interoperability with third-party tools such as JasperReports was tested without problems.
COBOL-IT’s interoperability with “C” and Java was critical in assuring the Comune di Milano that the solution represented a solid investment moving forward, and that they would continue to be able to leverage rapidly changing technologies into the foreseeable future.
The entire migration was completed in less than a year, with no disruptions, and no change in user experience. Because all re-engineering tasks were automated by HTWC toolsets, risks were greatly reduced, and labor costs associated with complex rewrites and tests were avoided
Challenges
Working with the HTWC technical team, the Comune di Milano was able to effectively re-host all of the elements of their solution stack. They were able to emulate tools that did not exist in the Open System Linux environment, and interoperate with tools that did exist in the Linux environment. They were able to reproduce the report writing capabilities. COBOL-IT programs interfaced with all of the critical middlewhere components and third-party tools.
COBOL-IT and HTWC provide superior solutions
“The powerful toolset of HTWC, the compatibility of the COBOL-IT Compiler Suite, and years of experience that COBOL-IT and HTWC bring to a migration ensure a low-cost, low-risk migration. Working together with HTWC, we can provide the very highest value in re-hosting solutions.”
Stephane Croce, CEO of COBOL-IT.
| Challenge | Solution | Customer Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Re-host mission-critical applications with minimal impact on operations and user experience. | Migration of Online and Batch applications to Red Hat Linux, DB2LUW database, Xframe HTWC and COBOL-IT Compiler Suite Enterprise Edition. | Significant cost savings, providing an anticipated ROI payback period of less than one year |
| Preserve all investment to date in third-party tools and utilities. | COBOL-IT programs were successfully interfaced with all critical middleware, and thirdparty utilities. | No change in user experience. Significant cost savings. |
| Maximize cost-savings through theuse of Open Source solutions certified by IBM. | Use the COBOL-IT Compiler Suite Enterprise Edition | Ensures interoperability with DB2, critical third-party utilities, and middleware. |
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