LzLabs

LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe

Legacy Applications

LzLabs Partners with COBOL-IT to Enable Seamless Mainframe Application Migration

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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.

LzLabs Partners with Microsoft Azure to Liberate Customer Mainframe Applications for Cloud Deployment

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Enables Seamless Shift from Mainframe to Cloud Platforms

By LzLabs GmbH, Zürich, Switzerland

Zurich, 14 March 2016 – LzLabs and Microsoft Azure today announced that they will partner to provide cloud delivery for the LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe®; a technology solution that will enable customers to move their legacy mainframe applications and data seamlessly to Linux- based cloud platforms.

Microsoft Azure will be the preferred cloud provider for LzLabs’ customers requiring cloud hosting of their Software Defined Mainframe and cloud delivery of their migrated mainframe applications. Microsoft will assist with the migration and support of mainframe customers transitioning to the Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Microsoft and LzLabs will also partner for joint marketing initiatives including seminars and customer events, commencing with co-branding at the LzLabs CeBIT 2016 stand (Hall 6, Swiss Pavilion, Stand D30).

“The mainframe is the last bastion of proprietary computing and the prospect that customers can be freed through the Software Defined Mainframe is a cause of celebration,” says Dr. Bernd Kiupel, Business Group Lead Cloud & Enterprise Microsoft Switzerland. “We are delighted that LzLabs has selected Microsoft Azure as its cloud partner and points to the scalability, flexibility and security that we deliver. We will be working closely with LzLabs in the migration of the mainframe customers to the bright future of cloud.”

LzLabs’ solution solves the legacy mainframe application problem where over 3000 of the world’s largest companies have no escape from expensive and outdated application architectures, which still power 70% of the world’s commercial transactions.

“Microsoft is hugely respected in the datacentres of the world’s largest companies and was the natural cloud partner of choice for us,” explains Thilo Rockmann, Chairman of LzLabs. “Customers can have complete confidence that in migrating their applications to the LzLabs Software Defined MainframeTM they will experience a seamless service with the reassurance that Microsoft Azure delivers the most reliable, available and secure cloud service.”

At CeBIT 2016, LzLabs is exhibiting in the Swiss Pavilion
(Hall 6, Stand D30, Center Row – Booth #201)

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.

LzLabs Unveils World’s First Software Defined Mainframe

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Set to Liberate Legacy Applications with Seamless Shift from Mainframe to Open Linux server and Cloud Platforms

By LzLabs GmbH, Zürich, Switzerland

Zurich, 14 March 2016 – LzLabs announced today the world’s first Software Defined Mainframe, a technology solution that will enable customers to move their legacy mainframe applications and data seamlessly to open Linux server and Cloud platforms.

LzLabs’ solution solves the legacy mainframe application problem where more than 3000 of the world’s largest companies have no escape from expensive and outdated application architectures, which still power 70% of the world’s commercial transactions.

The LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe® will support major legacy operating environments and languages so that customers can break free from the high, recurring cost of mainframe software and hardware while preserving their enormous investment in legacy applications, data and business processes.

“The evolution of alternative hardware platforms, particularly x86, has shown that increasingly large volumes of traditional mainframe workloads can successfully run in these environments.” Dale Vecchio, Gartner noted in How Will the Mainframe Survive? (July 2015). “Many mainframe-using organizations are also evaluating their application portfolios in an effort to find workloads that can be moved to lower-cost platforms, thereby reducing consumption, or at least the growth, of mainframe MIPS,” according to Dale Vecchio and Mike Chuba, Gartner in How to Reduce the Cost of IBM Mainframe Computing (September 2015).

“Despite an almost universal desire to liberate mainframe applications to improve interoperability, business agility and to reduce costs, the risk and complexity of rewriting or recompiling code have been assessed as too high by many mainframe customers”, states Thilo Rockmann, Chairman of LzLabs. “What was required was a seamless way to allow the customer’s application code and data to run unchanged in a modern environment. LzLabs has worked for five years to build exactly this solution – the Software Defined Mainframe.”

Announced at CeBIT 2016, the LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe® will be offered to customers both for use within their own datacentres running on Red Hat Linux-based computers and for deployment via the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. (Please see separate press releases: “LzLabs Partners with Red Hat to Deliver Linux Platform for Mainframe Apps” and “LzLabs Partners with Microsoft Azure to Liberate Customer Mainframe Applications for Cloud Deployment”.)

About LzLabs 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.

LzLabs Collaborates with Red Hat to Develop Linux Platform for Mainframe Apps

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LzLabs works with Red Hat to Shift Customer Mainframe Applications to Open Linux Server and Cloud Platforms

By LzLabs GmbH, Zürich, Switzerland

Zurich, 14 March 2016 – LzLabs announced today that it is working with Red Hat to deliver the world’s first Software Defined Mainframe – a technology solution designed to enable customers to move their legacy mainframe applications and data easily to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

LzLabs plans to collaborate with Red Hat on both the technology platform for the LzLabs Software Defined MainframeTM and also on sales and marketing initiatives to introduce the concept to customers across Europe. Customers making the migration to the Software Defined Mainframe will be supported by LzLabs and Red Hat both during and post the migration process. The joint marketing activities are expected to commence at CeBIT 2016 through representation of the Red Hat brand in the LzLabs booth (Hall 6, Swiss Pavilion, Stand D30) and in collaborative industry analyst activities.

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 – while preserving their enormous investment in legacy applications, data and business processes.

“Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been proven to be the Linux platform of choice for many enterprise customers seeking a modern, stable operating system for modern and next-generation IT deployments. As migrating mainframe applications to a software-abstracted layer becomes a real capability, Red Hat Enterprise Linux will again stand ready to be a reliable and flexible platform for this new phase of enterprise computing,” explains Jim Totton, Vice President and General Manager, Platforms Business Unit, Red Hat. “LzLabs is opening the door for mainframe customers to pursue platform modernizations and implement digital transformation.”

“The LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe provides a platform for mainframe customers that will deliver a new era of efficiency and openness,” states Thilo Rockmann, Chairman of LzLabs. “It was critical that we chose a partner proven throughout the IT industry customers could absolutely rely on for the stability, security features and rigour of the platform – and Red Hat embodies this.”

At CeBIT 2016, LzLabs is exhibiting in the Swiss Pavilion
(Hall 6, Stand D30, Center Row – Booth #201)

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 orthe cloud. Abandoning compatibility makes migration very difficult as critical data will need tobe 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 programsto 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.