Page 35 - EngineerIT November 2022

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

MIGRATING DATA FROM THE MAINFRAME

TO THE CLOUD SIMPLIFIED

by FIRtech COO Fanie Botha

ecent advances in automated tools for migrating legacy applications to the cloud
have altered the mainframe market. Many companies that rely on mainframes
Rare now migrating to modern cloud-based platforms in order to stay relevant and
ultimately, to save costs.
However, one of the biggest challenges when migrating from any mainframe is Fanie Botha
moving transactional and master data. These large-scale migrations normally take longer
than 18 months and given the scale and complexity of these projects, businesses have
been slow to adopt these automated migration tools. RaaS provides business leaders with
Data migrations always seem simple on paper, but the reality is that 1:1 mappings end better access to the data captured in
up becoming 1:n:1 mappings, with more exceptions than rules. The reasons behind this these legacy systems. Mainframe data,
include the fact that modern enterprise systems model data objects very differently to which contains many years of business
how mainframe systems were designed. transactions, can now be used to feed
The fact is that many of these data migrations that are sold as being ‘automated’ end analytics or machine learning initiatives
up being executed by teams of human data capturers and developers. They spend much that can deliver a competitive advantage.
more time on programming for the deviations in the data than the fields that can map By taking advantage of the multiple
1:1. protocols and interfaces available on
Imagine if one could replace the team of human data capturers with a humanoid cloud services, they can unlock core
robot. It could be trained on exactly the same principles and exceptions that necessitated business processes and data in their
the use of humans over data migration programs in the first place. mainframe. Companies can now access
mainframe data instantly - RaaS will help
Digital workers are the solution them move away from rigid monoliths
Well, it’s now possible with FIRtech’s Robotics as a Service (RaaS) solution. It’s an and remove outdated interfaces and
automation tool that makes this task almost effortless, a proven mainframe data protocols.
migration and modernisation tool that helps companies mitigate their mainframe risks in Cloud is the future, it offers access to
the shortest possible time and with the least amount of risk. advanced analytics, AI, machine learning
The data migration robot uses front-end GUI’s to retrieve data from the mainframe and data lakes. It also offers horizontal
and automatically migrate and capture the data into a new system. This removes any scalability with virtual unlimited capacity
risks, where business rules that are built into the system GUI or terminal, are overwritten to increase scalability and elasticity.
by the use of back-end scripts.
More importantly, it also ensures that exceptions are caught, fixed and recaptured For more information or to request
before any data inconsistency is created in the new system. A single robot can work up a free demonstration, visit
to 24 times faster than a human and doesn’t need any rest or sleep - effortless, errorless https://reconbot.co.za/ or email
data migration in a matter of hours, not days or months. info@firtech.co.za

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