IT Managers looking to modernize are increasingly finding salvation in the Strangler Application Pattern, an incremental approach theorized by Martin Fowler fifteen years ago. Sitting on top of a monolith Managers of mission-critical legacy systems face big challenges when called upon to usher them into the modern age. These systems, many of which are many
In business, the status quo can be deadly. And there is no deadlier force than the quiet march of technological progress, somewhere in the wild, slowly but surely rendering your business obsolete. This thought isn’t new if your critical business operations are running on a legacy language like COBOL. It’s a trusty system, has been
In today’s economy, volatility is the new normal. But in tech, disruptive volatility is now on steroids. Thanks to the pandemic and the sporadic growth that followed, IT managers struggled to address how best to move their modernization goals forward. Adapting to remote work needs and a customer base that shifted online, new and bigger
Enterprise software is in a critical stage of its evolution. Software complexity continues to advance while customer data grows exponentially along with it (although which one is the chicken and which one is the egg could be debated). To make matters even more fun, artificial intelligence is well on its way to turbocharging both. In
In software development, cloned code is a common yet unwelcome guest. It refers to code copied and pasted from one place to another, often without proper attribution or understanding of its purpose. While it may seem like a quick and easy solution for solving a problem, cloned code can lead to some pretty hairy issues
The short answer is yes, you can. Achieving cost savings depends on the COBOL system you’re running and how that app performs in the new Java environment. Let’s take a look. What are Specialty Processors? IBM Z offers specialty processors designed to offload specific types of work from the General Purpose Processor (GPP). The two
Traditionally, creating system documentation is a labor-intensive task that requires significant time, effort, and vigilant upkeep. And a real snore to boot. With the emergence of artificial intelligence that can read code and summarize it, a shiny new godsend is born for those of us who must maintain an additional layer of explanation to our
If a “big bang” modernization project isn’t an option for your organization, a growing number of approaches and solutions are at your service that can help you make incremental yet impactful progress. From microservices to automation, you can build a portfolio of “digital transformation” projects that increase efficiency, help you provide better services to your
COBOL and its rigid structures present a unique set of challenges to companies that want to leverage the advantages of contemporary programming languages with a conversion to Java. The process is fraught with challenges and risks that require meticulous planning and careful execution. One of the most critical aspects of this conversion process is testing.
No matter how much experience we invest into a complex project, chances are we learn a new thing or two along the way. Since we have deadlines to meet, we ship it as is, and we are happy to apply our new knowledge to the next project. With refactoring, we get a second shot at
