Migrations lift, shift, exchange commands
December 3, 2009
Speedware announced the third phase of its online tool transfer from HP yesterday, as the migration partner rolled out the old MPE-to-HP-UX utilities on a new Web resource. The tools include a Commands Cross-Reference, an MPE to HP-UX Programming API Cross-Reference, as well as a cross reference for MPE to HP-UX System Administration Functions. All are in sync with the most reliable means to replace a 3000 application, something Speedware's Chris Koppe calls lift and shift.
At this year's e3000 Community Meet, Koppe related the story of how essential it was for a client to retain the logic and architecture of its 3000 apps in a move to HP-UX. ScreenJet's Alan Yeo, a provider for tools for do it yourself migration projects, said that some customers making a migration have asked "I'd like my bugs migrated, too."
In our video from the Meet, Koppe reveals background from the migration story of Australian insurance firm ING, which Speedware helped migrate during 2008. The alternative to lift and shift is replacement applications. The ideal situation for minimum change is the same third party app hosted on a new environment: more often Windows for the typical 3000 user, but sometimes HP's Unix.
Koppe said that ING's CIO didn't want to expose the company's data to scrutiny during the migration. Moving the data to Eloquence, the CIO said "if we have to look at the data, the project is a non-starter." Compliance issues would have risen up if the data had to be massaged in any way during the migration, Koppe said.
Further along in the video, after Yeo's lift and shift admonition and Koppe's peek at secret data, the Support Group inc's David Floyd made a pitch for ample migration of a system's documentation. If the expert on how a 3000 app leaves for whatever reason, including an untimely demise, "it's the people in this room who'll have to solve problems, because it becomes mission-critical knowledge at that point."
Interim homesteading, of any duration, precedes a migration. Engaging an offsite expert who's learned an application from an in-house system manager -- while transition proceeds using HP's cross reference utilities -- provides insurance for the lifting and shifting.
<> Cross-Reference