U.S. Federal Agency successfully modernized mission-critical system

Overview

Established in 1930, this large U.S. federal government agency operates a nationwide network of more than 100 facilities and supports a mission-critical public service. The organization serves more than 150,000 individuals through its operations and employs over 30,000 personnel. It is committed to delivering secure, reliable, and cost-effective services while continuously improving operational efficiency and public outcomes.

The agency’s legacy mainframe information system containing multiple applications, has long been an essential tool for monitoring and tracking. The system serves 50,000 users, with 4,000 concurrent users processing approximately 1.5 million transactions daily. Running on IBM Z14 hardware with a complex mix of COBOL, Assembler, CICS, and Db2 technologies, the Legacy environment had become increasingly difficult and costly to maintain and scale.

The Challenge

Like many mainframe systems, the application had evolved into a highly complex 3270 MVS Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) mainframe application. In addition to seven (7) Assembler programs, the Mainframe Inventory baseline included the following components:

• 1,282 COBOL programs
• Batch
• Online/CICS
• DB Layer
• Map Support
• COPYLIB members, totaling 3,624, included Assembler, DCLGENs, XLIB, and BOP COBOL COPYLIB.
• The Db2 database included 678 tables and approximately 1TB of data.

The initial conversion stage would provide the input to IBM’s new UI development that would mirror the current functionality with minimal enhancements. The converted code would need to run successfully against Db2 z/OS in parallel with PostgreSQL leading up to the final system cutover.

Additional complexity factors:

• Operated on a shared machine across multiple LPARs
• Escalating operating costs
• Key IT Staff approaching retirement
• 24x7 production schedule with minimal scheduled maintenance downtime
• Dead code
• The legacy IDMS database converted to Db2 without logic transformation
• Cyclomatic Complexity Analytics are higher than average
• Significant operational impact risk due to requirement for daily record updates

The agency’s technology leaders recognized that by shifting to a modern cloud-based platform, they could increase the scalability of their systems while increasing organizational agility.

The Solution

The agency planned a transformation program to modernize and migrate the legacy application to an approved AWS GovCloud solution called the Enterprise Cloud Platform (ECP), a cloud-native architecture,  while preserving decades of proven business logic.

IBM selected Astadia for their industry-leading expertise in complex mainframe modernization projects and proven suite of migration tools. Astadia proposed a highly automated refactoring approach leveraging its proven FastTrack Methodology and proprietary conversion tools. The goal was to deliver like-for-like functionality and equivalent the core legacy application while maintaining full functional equivalence.

Astadia’s team delivered the transformation of the application’s COBOL and Assembler components into Java, utilizing automation where possible. For the system’s online interaction, Astadia developed a custom converter to enable recording and testing of that functionality. The batch programs validation process required the capture of multiple database snapshots to accurately test functionality and processing.

The team utilized a proprietary tool capable of comparing Db2 z/OS to PostgreSQL table data. The tool allows for the comparison of EBCDIC output files to ASCII output files. A separate proprietary tool was used to intelligently convert EBCDIC files containing multiple data types based off the source file layout copybook. The team migrated BOP’s data from Db2 to PostgreSQL, with a full byte-for-byte data validation between the two databases.

Astadia supported IBM’s implementation of a microservices architecture that enables scalability and low maintenance overhead, with the final application deployed as containerized services on AWS GovCloud ECP. The core refactoring project was structured as a 36-month engagement, with provisions for additional online development work as needed.

The project followed a structured six-wave delivery process encompassing factory certification, integration testing, performance validation, and user acceptance testing. This methodology emphasized automation, significantly reducing manual effort and minimizing the risk of human error.

The Results

Astadia delivered modernized programs and supporting framework to IBM for reengineering and delivering the final application to the Federal Agency, on time and within budget. The client’s legacy mainframe applications were transformed into a modern, scalable application built with Java-based microservices, suitable for deployment in the AWS GovCloud.

By leveraging proprietary tools, the project dramatically reduced manual coding requirements while maintaining the integrity of the original business logic. That led to a faster, more accurate, more efficient outcome, and offered the agency’s leaders an extraordinarily high level of confidence in a successful outcome.

The new architecture offers better scalability, improved maintainability, and a foundation for future innovation. The federal agency is now positioned to reduce long-term operational costs, eliminate its dependency on specialized mainframe skills, and more easily integrate modern technologies.

This engagement demonstrates Astadia’s expertise in delivering large-scale, mainframe-to-cloud refactoring projects for critical federal government systems.

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