Companies are snapping up emerging technologies but in the trail of legacy hardware and software left behind, many are needlessly discarding valuable assets. According to migration specialists, the IT industry is wasting millions of dollars worth of investment in the process.
While computer systems need to be adapted to meet the growing needs of business, much redevelopment with emerging technologies fails to consider the inherent value of the legacy system, including functions that have been integral in the organisation`s success, said Joao de Oliveira, a director of migration systems specialist, MigrationWare, speaking on migration developments in the US recently.
"New technologies will continue to arrive - such as Itanium and power PC, XML, Linux, Java, .NET and Web services - and no IT company can afford to ignore these. However, replacing one platform technology with another is a very slow process. When companies redevelop using emerging technologies, often in the process they throw the baby out with the bath water."
The alternative, advocates De Oliveira, is to migrate by means of technology conversion, which allows for the retention of the business functionality while allowing for the change in technology.
"Legacy is the investment which has been made in the people, processes and technology we have in place to run our businesses. There will always be a legacy in IT as the new does not immediately replace the old: the two can co-exist, but if left unchanged these will cause business applications to become rigid and inflexible and make the job of keeping pace with the demands of business expensive and risky."
Legacy technologies that abound today include mainframes running Bull GCOS7, OS390, VSE/ESA, CICS, IMS, COBOL, 370 Assembler, JCL, Adabas, Natural and Ideal.
A new solution aimed at automating migration tasks involving legacy systems migrations was launched by MigrationWare in the US at a conference held by its business partner, Micro Focus, the leading provider of legacy development software for enterprise platforms.
The South African IT company combined its expertise in migration tool development and systems integration to launch a multifaceted Easytrieve migrations solution which leverages contributions by Micro Focus and another partner, Canam Software.
Through MigrationWare`s core ability to integrate and build translators, the sophisticated solution was built to allow for the automatic migration of the Easytrieve reporting language to a contemporary Wintel and Lintel platforms.
As a programming language, Easytrieve is different from many others in that it has a very specific focus, said De Oliveira. "Easytrieve is essentially a reporting language and a data manipulation language. Normally in producing reports a common requirement is that you first gain or retrieve information from a range of sources and then manipulate it, sort it and report on it.
"While Easytrieve is seldom core to an organisation`s IT strategy, it is pervasive and used somewhere by most companies with mainframes - but today, due to the increasing choice on the market, its technology offers less value than it once did.
"For any organisation contemplating migration the question of what to do with its many subsets of technology, including Easytrieve, is a relevant one, and migrating away from it is now an attractive possibility. Customers can retain their mainframe investment while replacing Easytrieve and at the same time add significant value.
"Being able to continually adapt computer systems to meet the growing needs of business is the IT organisation`s primary concern," said De Oliveira.
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