Others have given good advice. This is just observations and comments. Things to think about.
Note: You cannot translate all functions in running on mainframe to a different platform. The process needs to be written according to the platform it will run on. If you have IMS, you need to find another DB to run on the new platform, build up the DB file with the data you need. Then identify how to do DR, Recovery, Boo-Boo Recovery (roll back of work), and so forth. How will DR be handled? How will Business Continuity be handled? How will - User updated a field wrong and needs it to be fixed 3 weeks later - be handled? SLAs are important. How will they translate to the new platform? Ensure any Audit functions are identified? SOX, HIPPA, PCI, etc... How will security be handled on the new Platform? Is it comparable to your current Security environment? Most other platforms do not have the resiliency of the mainframe and therefore, if it is a critical application (the bread and butter of the company), it may be a challenge to move it without some growing pains. Ensure any source code management is there. What language is currently used? Is it translatable to the new platform? Can you drop and run? Or do you need to do development (some slight alterations) to make it run on the new platform? Be able to review what was run on the mainframe in case you need to see what happened a month, year back during migration and a couple of years after migration. Yes that does happen. When it was on the mainframe how did it run? What is different from what is running on the other platform now. Leap year, Leap Second, how is that handled on the new platform? How does the clock change occur? Is it manual? Is it automatic? Will the application need to be shut-down when we go back or forward? Have a way to handle Scheduling. Not all schedulers run the work the same way. You would not want to carry the schedule as it runs on the mainframe to a server. RESTART processes really need to be understood. STEPS do not exist on a server. But you can build the schedule to run the individual processes needed with the intent to be able to restart in a previous process. JCL has Steps you can restart in - not servers. How are the charges done for the Licensing of Products? One mainframe one License charge typically, some server products #Servers*License fees. Some of the issues I have seen at various shops: Tried to move an application exactly like it looked on the mainframe. Wound up having to increase the server significantly to handle the workload. Add lots of more servers to handle the workload. Had to increase storage to handle the workload. And rarely got a passing grade on DR. Basically undersized the migration and did not expect that increase sizing was needed. Recovery of files was extremely difficult as the tools on the server were not robust like DFDSS or FDR products. Copying of files was rampant and no one team knew which version was the right one DR,QA, Perf, all needed to be sized the same as the main production application environment. So 5x, 10x etc. more Servers, Disk, Energy, Floor Space, and so on. The best way to migrate from the MF is to understand the business and what the needs are. Then PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. I know of several shops that thought they would save money and instead spent more $$$ per year than when they had a MF (and that was conservative.). Then they had to migrate back to the MF. Do not undersize the requirements. Vendors make more money having to go back in and resize when you do not have enough stuff or the right stuff. Now go be a good team player and do not ask any of these questions. Management has probably already decided they are going to do this no matter what. And it will be the next management team that will have to "fix" any issues. The others will have their bonuses and moved on before migration probably completes. Lizette > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of James Wellingtin > Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2017 1:29 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Migration of Mainframe to other plat form. > > Hey > I know this here might be a bit of a nasty question to ask Have a customer > who has intensions of migrate to another platform than IBM Mainframe, don't > know what ? > They have asked MetaWare to be the stakeholder in this . > At the moment it is in the very very beginning of he process. > > I think this is an issue, that we all face right now . > > Does anybody have had experience with Metaware, and tell if they had success > ? > That is , did they succeed in full migration or partial migration ? > > Or was it all dropped ? > > All input would be appreciated > > > > Regards > > James > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
