"My company has just acquired another business, which operates on a different platform. I want to run the new business through our existing processes – How can I make the data held on my AS400 platform available to another platform. What are my options?"
Many businesses will face the challenge of integrating two apparently incompatible data storage systems. Happily there are various options available which will allow your existing business data to ‘talk’ effectively to your newly acquired system, without an expensive and lengthy system re-write.
Changes can be made at the data level, either wrapping up areas into well-defined services, or making changes within the physical or logical layers of the database management system.
Another modernisation route would be to make data available to new platforms via connector technologies e.g. web services using Java as the enabling language.
An additional choice specific to the AS400 platform would be transition to the DB2 for i SQL storage engine. A number of technical innovations along with a well defined migration route exist to move from Native DDS file access to SQL. IBM have stated that DDS will remain supported but SQL is where they will improve and innovate. Some new features such as the XML, BLOB and CLOB data types and the OmniFind full text indexing search is available only when using the SQL storage engine. "Over the last few years, our in-house IT department has been downsized and increasingly de-skilled and disconnected from the business. We want to extend the life of our AS400 system but the business is reluctant to commit money to maintaining an unfashionable legacy system. What course can you recommend for the future?"
The business has lost confidence that their existing software can continue to meet their requirements. The team who implemented the original IT systems for the business are either no longer around, or are no longer in step with the management team. The prevailing business culture views investment into a legacy system as a step backward.
In this situation, communication between IT and the business is key. The role Desynit plays here is to bridge the gap between IT and the business, using their experience to understand business requirements and translating them into real world, effective IT solutions.
Typically Java and .Net are the enabling technologies, extending the life of your existing AS400 system. Expertise in this area is readily available in the marketplace and less expensive than resources for an increasingly scarce legacy skill set. Strike a balance between the application experience of the existing developers and opening new doors using the power and productivity of modern development tools. "The business is going through a period of diversification and expansion and we are adding new product lines, services and business areas regularly. Our team is required to use several separate software packages to progress orders through to delivery. Can we develop a new user interface which is more intuitive, provides better performance and offers greater scalability?"
As the most visible part of the system, the user interface typically generates the greatest interest in your business’s IT. How can your team operate competitively if their IT systems do not effectively support change?
Is it possible to provide your organisation with a state-of-the-art front end, without starting again with your AS400 system? The answer to this is yes - the retrieval of data being the key here.
Technical options for user interface changes are varied, from screen scraping existing functionality, to integration with other packages, or deep linking custom functionality with an existing presentation layer for example MS SharePoint, to create a consolidated GUI or web portal.
Making use of web based client technologies in particular, opens up numerous integration possibilities such as orchestrating workflows or deep linking a single existing screen into a new application. "What can I do to analyze, investigate and correct the current poor performance of my AS400 applications?"
First things first, the analysis of the system - Desynit has used the following approaches in the past to correctly diagnose the failings in a system’s processes:-
- Static analysis tools to examine program and database structures;
- Runtime analysis to record the flow of execution and database updates;
- Testing tools to capture baseline outcomes and compare against revisions.
Once correctly diagnosed, underlying issues can be effectively addressed. Here are a few areas which have compromised system performance that we have identified and corrected:-
- Prolific use of virtualised fields on Access Paths
- Record selection implemented where a Select/Omit access path is more efficient
- Inclusion of programs no longer required
- Inefficient programming
- Views keyed on virtual fields - OPNQRYF
"What is the advantage to me, an IT Director, of moving standard green screen applications to an SOA model?"
The enhancements to the user experience associated with an SOA environment are proven and well documented. The question here is how will it help you, the IT Director, financially and operationally?
Moving to the type of universal interface associated with SOA means that the solving of business tasks can be opened up to any team, taking you away from a reliance on an increasingly specialist legacy skill set.
It also offers you the opportunity to put in place some effective contract boundaries within your system with clearly defined limits between the old and new. In short, who is responsible for what.
As we have outlined in previous answers, using technologies such as web services, you can integrate with any software model you choose, while maintaining your existing AS400 systems and retaining control of the data and processing. "The business requires changes to our existing software to deliver on new requirements. We are not confident in making changes as we do not have the in-house testing capabilities required."
Making changes to your existing software is a costly process. Not only should you factor in the time and cost of the analysis and coding change, you must also allow for adequate system testing. Even a small revision means you will need to run a full system test to make sure you get the outcome you intended, and only that.
Desynit has experience of working with businesses requiring advice and training required to select and correctly utilise testing tools appropriate to the AS400 and associated technology. Once your team has the skills and tools to run their own system tests, they will have the ability to make software changes in-house without costly repercussions. We have just received new investment in the business, and we have money to invest in our IT systems. Why should we think about modernising our AS400 systems rather than going for straightforward system replacement? What new technologies can we benefit from/ link to if we choose to modernise rather than replace?
The roadmap for software modernisation and software replacement follow the same route for the majority of the journey. Software code is changed and adapted over time to better serve the business. A system that is replaced entirely may well represent perfect harmony between business processes and software on day one of its launch, but on day two the business begin to diverge and the cycle begins once more.
While replacement may appear the less complex option at first sight, its worth considering the practical issues that remain – how will the system be maintained while the replacement system is written and delivered? How will the existing software adapt to changing business need during the transitional period? What are the plans for the existing system in the event of the new system being delivered late or not at all? These are substantial questions which will require thorough answers – all of which incurs time and cost.
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