How ​​do modernization services based on the ORIENS platform work?

The ORIENS platform brings inventory, analysis, and transformation capabilities to the modernization process of legacy COBOL/CICS/DB2-based systems. Built under the principles of MDE (Model Driven Engineering), it transfers the source code and the database of the inherited system to formal models, on which we can present different views, perform queries and apply transformations. This allows us to automate different tasks and practices of the modernization process, which, if carried out manually, would take a long time, would be much more expensive, and, finally, would be subject to a large number of errors. Although there are tools on the market that respond to the same principles and capabilities as ORIENS, they have deficiencies in the face of the comprehensive modeling of systems based on the COBOL/CICS/DB2 platform. They are systems that began to be developed a long time ago (in some cases several decades) and with very large code bases (up to several hundred million lines of code), which is a significant handicap for traditional modeling and static analysis tools. of code. For ORIENS, the size of the system to be modernized is not a problem, since its design is based on the Big Data and Fast Data architecture approach, which allows computing and storage demands to grow linearly with the size of said system. It is developed in Scala language, on the Open Canarias technology stack for reactive systems: CAKES (Cassandra+Akka+Kafka+Elasticsearch+Spark). The other differential factor of ORIENS is that it is oriented towards the identification of patterns in the inherited system. Part of a set of predefined patterns that facilitate the extraction of inter and intra program relationships, dependencies, dead and duplicate code, complexity measurements, system slicing, data traceability, etc.; but fundamentally, because it simplifies the process of incorporating new patterns. Likewise, the pattern becomes a key element of communication with the client, as it can be described functionally, and then formally transferred to ORIENS.

How ​​can ORIENS-based modernization services help you achieve those results?

ORIENS is the first support platform for the modernization of inherited COBOL/CICS/DB2 systems that provides the vision and integral treatment of the system, regardless of its size and complexity. With ORIENS, once the system artifacts have been inventoried (COBOL source code, JCL jobs, system scripts, database DDLs, etc.), we have a set of basic system views and analytics (duplicate code, dead code , maintainability index, modularity, subjects of analysis, etc.). This starting point is enriched with advanced capabilities, such as those provided by automated function point analysis to obtain detailed measurements in the modernization process, and the generation of inter- and intra-program dependency graphs for architecture discovery, identification of components and services, and slicing of the system. On the other hand, the needs and expectations of each client in the modernization processes present substantial differences, so the ability to add new queries, analytics and transformations is another element to highlight. ORIENS incorporates the concept of pattern to bring the way of expressing those needs and expectations closer to its implementation on the platform. The pattern can describe a precursor, such as a certain code structure, and the solution to said precursor is a refactoring or code migration scenario; model transformations resolve the gap between the two states.

How ​​to access ORIENS-based modernization services?

Contact one of our technical advisors now and request information about COBOL/CICS/DB2 application modernization services. The expert staff of our application modernization unit will contact you and arrange an appointment where they will explain in detail what the service consists of and the benefits that you will obtain in your particular case, as well as help you to specify some necessary details for the Preparation of a solution proposal for the provision of this service.