APIs over core CICS or IMS transactions
Secured, documented APIs in front of a core transaction, such as a customer, policy or account lookup, so web, mobile, partner and AI channels can use it without touching the mainframe code. See API wrappers.
Mainframe migration
Mainframe and COBOL, modernised one workload at a time.
Your mainframe still runs the business. We move workloads off it, or open them up with secure APIs, in fixed-price sprints that keep the core running while each change is proven.
What is mainframe modernisation?
Mainframe modernisation is the process of moving applications and data from mainframe platforms, such as IBM Z running z/OS, to modern infrastructure, or of opening them up to new channels without moving them. Typical mainframe applications are written in COBOL or PL/I, run transactions under CICS or IMS, keep data in DB2, IMS or VSAM files, and run nightly batch controlled by JCL.
The main options are rehosting the code on modern infrastructure, converting it to Java or .NET, rebuilding functions as new services, and wrapping core transactions in APIs. The lower-risk approach is to move one workload at a time, starting with the ones that cost the most to run or block new products.
The pressure is rarely the hardware
Mainframes are reliable. What hurts is everything around them.
- COBOL and z/OS skills are harder to hire and keep every year
- Capacity-based charges rise with every new channel that calls the mainframe
- Every change waits for a release window and a specialist
- Undocumented batch and copybooks make each change riskier than the last
Mainframe work that fits in 30 days
Illustrative examples. Your first sprint is chosen in the Migration Blueprint for the fastest payback and lowest risk.
A batch suite moved off
A JCL batch stream rebuilt as scheduled jobs on modern infrastructure, with outputs reconciled against the mainframe on every parallel run.
Reporting offload
DB2 and VSAM data replicated to a modern database, so reporting and analytics stop consuming mainframe capacity.
A set of COBOL programs converted
A defined group of programs moved to Java or C#, with tests proving the same outputs for the same inputs.
A complete map of what you run
Programs, copybooks, datasets, jobs and their dependencies documented, ready to plan the exit or the next sprint.
Typical mainframe moves
COBOL and PL/I programs to Java, C# or rebuilt services
CICS and IMS transactions to REST APIs and event streams
JCL batch to Scheduled cloud or container jobs
DB2 for z/OS to PostgreSQL, Db2 LUW or a managed cloud database
VSAM and flat files to Relational tables with validated history
3270 green screens to Web interfaces with single sign-on
Map it, then move the first workload
A five-day Migration Blueprint maps your mainframe estate and picks the first workload, from A$9,500 and credited in full if you go ahead within 60 days. Then one fixed-price 30-day sprint at a time.
from A$50,000 per sprint
Do we have to leave the mainframe completely?
No. Many organisations keep the mainframe for the core and move everything around it: reporting, batch, new channels and integrations. Others exit in stages. The Migration Blueprint compares both against your costs, skills and risk.
How do you prove converted code behaves the same?
With your own data. Old and new run the same inputs in parallel, and outputs are compared record by record before anything switches over. Differences are explained and fixed, or signed off, before cutover.
Can you work with our outsourcer or mainframe provider?
Yes. We work alongside your provider and internal teams, agree access and change windows with them, and hand over everything we build.
What if our COBOL is undocumented?
That is common. The Blueprint maps programs, copybooks, datasets and jobs, and every sprint leaves behind documentation, so knowledge stops living in a few people's heads.