LzLabs Works with COBOL-IT to Shift Customer Mainframe Applications to Open Source Software
By LzLabs GmbH, Zürich, Switzerland
London, 28 April 2016 – LzLabs announced today that it is collaborating with COBOL-IT to deliver the world’s first Software Defined Mainframe – a technology solution which enables customers to migrate their legacy mainframe applications and data seamlessly to open Linux server and Cloud platforms. COBOL-IT will act as an integrated software provider for the solution as it is implemented for LzLabs’ customers across the world.
The LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe® is designed to support major legacy operating environments and languages so that customers can escape the high recurring cost of mainframe software and hardware, whilst preserving their enormous investment in legacy applications, data and business processes. This new environment works without forcing recompilations of COBOL or PL/1 application programs or making complex changes to the enterprise business environment. However, should a customer intend to make changes to it’s COBOL applications COBOL-IT’s customized Compiler provides a solution.
As part of the Software Defined Mainframe, LzLabs will incorporate a customised version of COBOL-IT’s Compiler software, which enables companies to migrate, deploy and maintain their legacy COBOL applications on all forms of open software, including Windows, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, Linux and zLinux, at the lowest possible cost and risk.
An alternative provider to long-time market leader in the sector, Micro Focus, COBOL-IT has gained significant market traction in recent years with the allure of comparable performance and reliability, at a typical cost reduction of 50-80%.
Stephane Croce, CEO and Founder, COBOL-IT, said: “We speak to companies across various regions which want to move away from legacy IT systems that are expensive to run and are stifling IT innovation. There is significant demand for a solution that opens up their applications to more flexible platforms, and can sustain IT performance. LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe® achieves this, and we’re delighted to be a part of this seismic shift in enterprise application management.”
“The Software Defined Mainframe delivers the efficiency and openness that companies are demanding from their enterprise applications,” states Thilo Rockmann, Chairman of LzLabs. “When developing the solution, we wanted to work with companies that are redefining the way enterprises view migration from legacy environments, and COBOL’s compilation solution stood out in terms of both quality and efficiency. We’re excited about the opportunities this presents for existing and prospective customers of both companies.”
About LzLabs
LzLabs is a software company that develops innovative solutions for enterprise computing customers, including the Software Defined Mainframe. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.
About COBOL-IT
COBOL-IT’s mission is to allow users to migrate, deploy, and maintain their legacy COBOL applications with minimal cost, and minimal risk.
COBOL-IT is the first company to offer a high quality, professional COBOL compiler to large enterprises seeking to migrate, deploy and maintain their COBOL applications at the lowest cost and lowest risk.
Founded in 2008, COBOL-IT has rapidly assumed a position of leadership in the global COBOL community, migrating hundreds of customers, with hundreds of thousands of users and hundreds of millions of lines of COBOL code.
With a robust product suite and a proven migration process, the company provides solutions that allow their clients to preserve the functionality of their strategic COBOL applications, with superior performance, agility and a significant reduction in costs. Technical Hubs located around the world allow COBOL-IT to guarantee that all of our clients have access to expert, responsive technical support. Partnership agreements between COBOL-IT and the leading providers of technical services and software solutions in Open Systems ensure that moving to COBOL-IT can be accomplished at low cost and low risk everywhere in the world.
About the Software Defined Mainframe
LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe® enables both Linux and Cloud infrastructure to process thousands of transactions per second, while maintaining enterprise requirements for reliability, scalability, serviceability and security. This software solution includes a faithful re-creation of the primary online, batch and database environments, which enables unrivaled compatibility and exceptional performance, to dramatically reduce IT costs.
About Legacy Applications
With over 70 percent of commercial transactions occurring on mainframe-based systems, organisations have become dependent on legacy applications stuck behind outdated application programming interfaces (APIs). Historically, these organizations have been forced to abandon compatibility with the mainframe in order to move legacy applications and data to Linux or the cloud. Abandoning compatibility makes migration very difficult as critical data will need to be converted and complex applications must be rewritten or recompiled and tested in a new environment. LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe protects customers’ investment in their business processes by eliminating recompilations of COBOL and PL/I programs, data conversion and complex testing.
LzLabs has developed a managed software container that provides enterprises with a viable way to migrate applications from mainframes onto Linux computers or private, public and hybrid cloud environments. When legacy application programs are placed into the container, the customers’ programs are enhanced to run on modern computers and decades-old APIs are exchanged for newer, more contemporary ones.
LzLabs’ software solution allows the executable form of legacy customer mainframe programs to operate without changes and without compromise to performance in a contemporary and cost- effective computing environment, and enables mainframe data to be written and read in its native formats. This new environment works without forcing recompilations of COBOL or PL/1 application programs or making complex changes to the enterprise business environment.
