There are still many companies using legacy mainframe systems, but they come with increasingly expensive licence fees, they do not readily interact with modern applications and more flexible environments, skilled technicians to support them are increasingly in short supply and they require constant upgrades to keep them current.
The problem for most organisations is that they have decades` worth of investment tied into their big iron which they don`t necessarily want to lose.
And most updates to mainframe systems simply add a veneer onto the existing system, increasing levels of complexity, so businesses that operate mainframes are gradually being left with systems that throttle flexibility, integration, and adaptability.
All of these issues increase operational risks.
But what are organisations to do?
They have three choices: 1) they can buy a packaged system, such as an ERP solution, 2) they can have their developers or consultants perform a custom rewrite of their systems; or 3) they can modernise their legacy environment.
ERP systems may seem like a viable solution. The majority of what most businesses need comes in a box, which they simply drop into place and switch on. The reality is a little different.
Organisations will have to gather their requirements for the system, a time-consuming task fraught with risk. Another reality is that after the general ledger has been implemented, the system needs a good deal of customisation which largely negates the benefits of using a packaged solution but also necessitates specialist maintenance and support skills - at a premium. Then, as with any switch to a different system, users will have to be trained, which is expensive and can be difficult as people often resist change.
Bespoke systems custom-designed for the business represent the potential to fully align the system with the business. But bespoke development suffers all of the detractions of an ERP implementation and many of those of a legacy environment. There is a lengthy requirements gathering phase with its inherent dangers, the potential for software mismatched against requirements and late delivery that leads to increased costs and operational ramifications, the requirement for specialist maintenance and support skills, and training for all users that make it a risky endeavour.
True legacy modernisation - not the thin veneer touted by many - represents the only real possibility for organisations that need to update their systems and mitigate the risk generally associated with that.
The process can be largely automated using software tools, which reduce the time taken to perform a conversion from a legacy language to a modern one; the business value of the original systems is maintained; downtime is greatly reduced or completely avoided; business disruption is minimised, as are the project`s expenses; resources remain available to other projects or the number of requisite consultants reduced; there is no need to retrain users since they retain their familiar interfaces; and the business gets to keep the investment of decades` coding and tweaking as code is translated line by line.
And while the software conversion tools are busy, they extract system designs so they can be refactored later if desired. The automated tools can also configure the code for a multitude of modern target systems that are less expensive to license and run on less expensive hardware, which reduces ongoing operational expenses.
It`s a low-risk approach that delivers long-term cost benefits and leaves organisations with systems that are entirely SOA-ready, which means they are flexible, adaptable and ready to be integrated.
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