Mainframe Modernization

Legacy systems running on mainframes face numerous challenges – an obsolete technology stack, a shrinking talent pool, high maintenance costs, and limited business agility. Failures or delays in modernization can lead to system outages, compliance risks, and loss of competitive advantage.

SoftRoad has helped many customers migrate their legacy systems on mainframe to open platforms, either on-premises or or in the cloud. Using our proprietary AI-assisted conversion technology, supported by structured analysis, validation, and engineering review, we migrate both legacy code and data to true open systems and relational databases (RDBs) that fully comply with industry standards. The resulting systems are rigoriously tested, highly maintainable, and are generative AI-ready for future maintenance and enhancement.

Success Stories

With our unparalleled AI-assisted modernization technology, supported by structured analysis, validation, and engineering review, we help our clients with their mainframe modernization initiatives, converting COBOL to Java and legacy data to relational database (RDB), delivering a true open system with high quality and low costs, which sets us apart from the competition.

A number of our clients presented their migration projects as case studies jointly with SoftRoad at major IT events in Japan. Cover pages shown below are from slides for those speaking sessions.

Case studies reference specific modernization projects delivered across different timeframes and regions. Brand names are used for illustrative purposes only and do not imply endorsement or ongoing commercial relationships.

Problems with Holding on to the Mainframe

Trapped in a legacy environment with COBOL applications running on mainframe, companies lose their competitiveness.
Sooner or later, these legacy COBOL systems will be modernized into Java or other open systems. Holding on to them results in low usability and high operational costs. It also makes it difficult to adopt new technologies such as generative AI.

COBOL to Java Migration Options and Pitfalls

Problems of Straight Conversion (COBOL to Java)

Features of AppModernizer’s Automated Conversion

AppModernizer converts COBOL system to standard Java system and also provides the following advantages in the new system.
☛ Standard Java code comparable to those built by human programmers.
☛ Data structure conversion to RDB, CSV.
☛ Performance improvement through Open structure.
☛ Common improvements such as expanding the number ofdigits for item IDs, etc.

With over 20 years of experience and 950 successful migrations, including COBOL to Java modernization, our AI-assisted conversion, supported by structured analysis, validation, and engineering review, sets us apart from the competition, generates pure Java system automatically, and guarantees high quality at a low cost.

Testing Tools Covering All Migration Technical Points

Our AI-assisted testing combined with multi-stage validation and comparison testing sets a new standard in quality assurance by independently identifying all technical points as well as leveraging customer-provided test data, delivering high quality while significantly reducing manual effort.

Comparison Test through Reproducing Actual Processing

Conducting comprehensive testing of the new Java system against the legacy COBOL system presents significant complexity due to differences in architecture, data structures, and processing logic.

With AppModernizer’s automated testing, clients can have peace of mind without having to worry about complex system tests themselves, allowing clients to focus on their core objectives.

UI migration

Feature of migrated GUI
・Improved operability with mouse and buttons.
・Customizable according to customer UI standards.
・Response speed similar to that of web systems.

COBOL to OpenCOBOL

When modernizing a legacy COBOL system, if the budget is limited and only a few future modifications are expected, OpenCOBOL (MF COBOL, Visual COBOL, etc.) may be a suitable option.

We leverage our industry-leading AI-assisted technology, supported by structured analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the existing COBOL systems, enabling automated code conversion and comprehensive, rigorous testing. This approach eliminates common migration challenges, including manual conversion of utilities and special cases, performance degradation, and overreliance on customer-provided test data for quality assurance.

Production Data Migration

If there are errors in data migration, business operation issues may arise.

Key implementation items

Over- or under-inclusion
All the data and operation patterns are rigorously checked by SoftRoad’s proprietary tool.
Data migration accuracy
We use the data migration tool to transform data across all test cases and validate the results through comparison. Especially with the comprehensive testing, which spans a large volume of data, we ensure the accuracy of structural changes, format conversions, etc.

Key tasks in data migration

Data migration was performed successfully across a wide range of enterprise migration projects we have completed.

Implement Specification Changes During Migration

Prolonged system freezes during migration can be avoided using our catch-up solution.
AppModernizer can perform automated conversion. If customer provides the latest COBOL source code after each update, we can integrate the changes by quickly converting them into Java code.

POC application

Migration cases