Accelerate Rewrite
Many organizations consider rewriting mainframe applications in order to drive innovation. If these applications are first moved to a modern development environment, running on LzLabs Software Defined Mainframe®, the likely success of such a project is significantly enhanced.
A Platform for Transformation
Once mainframe applications are migrated to SDM, individual components can be transformed, piece by piece, to new languages and implementations. This gradual and progressive method of refactoring existing applications eliminates the cost and project duration risks associated with wholesale rewrite projects.


Interoperability
Unlike normal rewrite projects, once on SDM there is no requirement for an entire application portfolio to be rewritten. Individual components can be transformed from legacy languages such as COBOL and PL/1 to new ones like Java, while others remain in legacy formats. SDM ensures full interoperability between these components, meaning you can modernize only programs that require attention. SDM APIs ensure that each language environment can invoke services and manage working storage in a natural way, even when those services and working storage are dependent on a totally different language environment.
Transcoding
To accelerate the modernization of customer applications, LzLabs has developed a transcoder which can be invoked from within LzWorkbench. Our transcoder creates working copies of individual COBOL programs in Java. Java programs retain full interoperability with those in legacy languages so that immediate regression testing can occur. From this solid, working baseline, incremental modernization of your applications portfolio is much more straightforward.


Modern Pipeline Tools
LzWorkbench is a modern system for the continuous development, testing, integration and deployment of application upgrades. Fully integrated with a modern development pipeline, it is instantly familiar to modern programmers.