Control / modernize your Mainframe

With the rise of efficient technologies, especially in the Cloud, modernizing Mainframe environments has become a strategic priority for many companies.  But modernizing systems that you don't necessarily have a great deal of control over is not always easy. Automation is a real option.

The Mainframe is still alive and well  ! The mainframe, with more than 60 years of existence, owes its survival to its security, a key characteristic. As it hosts strategic data, it is distinguished by its reliability, fault tolerance and advanced encryption systems, essential for certain sectors.

2 main strategies are implemented here and there

1- Mainframe   output The strategy adopted in recent years has often been to simply exit, keeping the applications as they are, or modernizing them. This approach is now less popular.

2- Modernization  of the Mainframe  More and more companies are turning to modernizing applications directly on the mainframe, by streamlining them, migrating them to more "current" languages, or leveraging third-party technologies, which is now possible on the mainframe. In any case, although the Mainframe remains a key platform for 89% of large companies, it tends to gradually become lighter or become hybrid by branching off towards the Cloud. This is what a recent study by the ESN Kyndryl conducted by the Coleman Parkes firm says.

But releasing or modernizing the Mainframe is not easy...  Skills are rare: young engineers are rarely trained in these technologies, which are considered outdated. On the other side of the age pyramid, if we have to mention Cobol, which is the emblematic language of the Mainframe, cobolists are often retired or close to it... . As for the processing managed in the Mainframes, it is sensitive, massive, and there cannot be the slightest interruption of service or regression.

2 strategies to change things gently

1- Continuous mapping of the system with data lineage  Our bias is to do dynamic "reverse engineering" of the Cobol code with {openAudit}, and to present the flows graphically, in the form of "maps" based on data lineage. These dynamic maps can be ultra granular, or more ensemble-based. Cobol specificities are covered:   Programs (.cbl), Structures files (.cpy). Equipped with a search engine, this data lineage allows you to define for each data, its origin and its future.  And it allows you to access the underlying management rules. The uses of the information can be included in the analysis.  This data lineage is based on a continually updated, open and documented database, which allows countless analyses to be carried out.    So, the platform has no more secrets for anyone, cobolists or non-cobolists. It can be easily maintained, optimized, partially decommissioned, etc.  This data lineage can be extended to a wide scope of technologies to embrace the entire Information System (including the data visualization layer). This is particularly the case with DB2 which is often associated with Cobol in the Mainframe.

2- Catalyze   migrations in standard SQL,  by automating the process {openAudit} will "parse" the Cobol, it will break down all the complexity of the code thanks to a grammar allowing exhaustive and ultra-granular analyses. All the subtleties of the Cobol will be taken into consideration.  {openAudit} deduces the overall kinematics and intelligence, which will be reconstructed in an agnostic algorithmic tree, Based on this, {openAudit} will produce "standard SQL", Then the intelligence will be reconstructed at a minimum in the specific SQL of the target database,  All complex processing, not reproducible in simple SQL, will be handled by a third-party language.    Migration can therefore be carried out efficiently and qualitatively.

Conclusion  While many companies are still hesitant to modernize their Mainframe and Cobol systems, the combination of dynamic flow mapping via data lineage and migration automation with {openAudit} offers a clear and effective solution to take this step. Modernization can move forward in leaps and bounds with open eyes.