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Overview
Few will argue against the fact that today Natural/ADABAS exists within an
increasingly shrinking market. Where exactly it lies within the vortex that
leads with increasing speed to ultimate extinction is hard to tell, but that it
has entered that vortex is undeniable.
For many organisations with a significant investment in Software AG’s
Natural/ADABAS technology, the question of what the future might hold is of
great relevance. At the same time as some technologies appear to be winding
down, others are coming to the fore and laying a convincing claim to ownership
of the future.
Microsoft’s C# and SQL Server are two such technologies in the prime of their
lives with thriving and expanding communities of users, third party vendors and
an expanding user base.
For those organisations with key investments in Natural/ADABAS technology and
for whom Microsoft technology is regarded as strategic, MigrationWare has a
solution that will result in the replacement of Natural/ADABAS with Microsoft C#
and SQL Server.
This MigrationWare solution provides an automated approach to the conversion of
Natural and ADABAS, providing functionally equivalent applications on the chosen
.NET target environment. The generated code is designed to be maintainable and
all inline comments are preserved, thus ensuring that any documentation that may
exist in the original source code is retained.
All code is converted automatically with well above 90% accuracy thereby
minimising the need for any manual intervention. |
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Once converted, the resultant code inherits all the benefits of productivity and
extendibility provided by the .NET environment as well as the benefits provided
by the well represented body of third party vendors.
The converted code is delivered entirely as source code with no run-time
dependencies helping to ensure no additional costs are incurred and also making
sure that the system owners have complete freedom to undertake technical
developments in any chosen direction, independent of third party support.
Benefits
The immediate benefits to be derived from this migration are those of
significant cost reduction, including hardware, software licensing and
application support costs.
Beyond this, the value of having a business critical application redeployed on a
strategic platform offers very clear benefits such as securing the long term
viability of the application and ensuring that it can continue to add value to
the business into the future.
MigrationWare’s strategy of providing a “black box” free solution ensures no
additional dependencies are introduced and that all links to the original
Natural/ADABAS environment are severed. This provides for a cost effective
environment as well as an application that conforms muchmore closely with the
requirements of the new platform than with the old.
A conversion to a .NET environment resolves the threat of a shrinking skills
base and ensures that the application can continue to be maintained and enhanced
at costs that are in line with the rest of business and not inflated by the
scarcity of appropriately skilled resources. |
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Key features
• Highly automated code conversion.
• Data is more accessible once converted to SQL Server. • Web based deployment
ensuring a customisable web based ‘look and feel’ and as opposed to a 3270 green
screen.
• Application lifespan would be extended due to the availability of C#
developers as opposed the reduced availability of Natural developers.
• Retraining of users is not required, as the behaviour of the converted
application remains unchanged.
• Producing a XML staging tier provides an increase scope to produce multiple
target types (i.e. object models, use cases, documentation) in addition to
source code generation. Conversion execution
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MigrationWare will work with you to deliver according to a plan best suited to
your needs. This may range from a conversion service only through to a complete
turnkey solution.
The standard MigrationWare offering based on the provision of a conversion
service would require the client to deliver to MigrationWare the Natural and
ADABAS source plus all related artifacts which necessary to complete the
delivery. MigrationWare would then undertake the conversion of the programs and
database structures to a C# and SQL Server configuration and achieve an
error-free clean compiling environment.
The converted programs would then be delivered back to the client for subsequent
testing and implementation. Should any issues surface, which require
MigrationWare’s involvement, MigrationWare will remain active in a technical
support role throughout the testing period.
Pricing
Each project is unique with differing requirements volumes, schedules and
deadlines. It is therefore usually impossible to supply a fixed pricing
structure. A final MigrationWare quote is only provided after interacting with
the client to ensure that MigrationWare fully understands the scope of the
project. |
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