mLogica Thought Leaders: Migrate IMS and IDMS to the Cloud Fast and Cost-Efficiently via Automation

In the ever-evolving world of technology, enterprises big and small are always looking for strategies to improve long-term business agility and efficiency. That’s why many companies are planning, or already in the process of, moving out of their inefficient mainframe-based systems, applications and programs and migrating to cloud platforms. With this spike in mainframe modernization, it’s now a question of when, not if companies will move off their legacy mainframe IMS DB and IDMS databases, with the goal of leveraging state-of-the-art functionalities available on demand in the cloud.

When it comes to mainframe modernization, organizations face a multitude of critical decisions, including selecting the optimal migration strategy. Many such projects have failed due to a wrongly executed approach that wastes huge amounts of money, saps stakeholder momentum—and gets the organization no closer to the cloud and its much-needed leading edge technologies.

Automated cloud migration solutions that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are turning out to be a game-changer, providing a smooth transition along with multiple cost advantages. Automation dramatically cuts the time and resources needed for IMS DB and IDMS database migration, providing a quick, economical transition to state of the art cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle. Automation also virtually eliminates costly human error—in stark contrast to highly error-prone manual methodologies.

Our LIBER*M Mainframe Modernization Suite offers a host of automated modules that make cloud migration time- and cost-efficient, even for many-decades-old databases like IMS DB, first released in 1966 to support the NASA Apollo program, and IDMS, released in 1973. Automation also provides a more secure approach to migration that helps protect critical business data. By accelerating code conversion during the migration process, automation helps cut transition times, allowing businesses to securely migrate their sensitive customer, financial and business data to their new cloud platform.

Other key value drivers of automated migration include:

It’s critical to gain complete insight into all components of your existing IMS DB or IDMS database environment prior to initiating the conversion process. mLogica’s proprietary LIBER*DAHLIA, a module of our automated LIBER*M Mainframe Modernization Suite, enables migration teams to perform a highly detailed assessment of the entire legacy application environment. This automated assessment provides a complete picture of all existing workloads, as well as database architecture, dependencies and performance metrics, allowing companies to avoid the project-blocking Last Mile Challenge.

Variations in data formats and query languages are another significant challenge in IMS DB and IDMS database migration to the cloud. LIBER*IRIS, the automated module of our LIBER*M Mainframe Modernization Suite that migrates IMS, IDMS, ISAM, VSAM and Db2 z/OS to modern relational databases, provides fast, consistent code refactoring, virtually eliminating human error for smooth integration with cloud platforms. Automation reduces the possibility of errors associated with manual conversions and helps companies save substantial time and money throughout their modernization initiatives.

mLogica’s automated approach slashes the time and risk associated with migrating hierarchical IMS DB to relational cloud databases by eliminating the need to change the queries and logic of the COBOL, PL/I and JCL programs that rely on them. The LIBER*IRIS “transparency” solution intercepts IMS DB “DL/I” calls and queries the relational database without requiring re-engineering.

Automated migration technology makes it possible to move data incrementally, reducing downtime, mitigating risk and ensuring business continuity. This virtually eliminates the possibility of human error while expediting the migration process and ensuring the preservation of data integrity.

With automated migration solutions, organizations hamstrung by the limitations of legacy IMS DB and IDMS databases can now move to their choice of cloud platform securely and efficiently, minimizing expenditure and support resources required. The faster organizations can move to the cloud, the sooner they can enjoy increased productivity, millions in infrastructure and licensing savings, plus on-demand access to cloud technologies that can support long-term growth and innovation.