Alberta Minister of Justice

The Government of Alberta rehosted its mainframe ‘JOIN’ IDMS-based application to Windows and SQL Server using the automation technology developed by Astadia. Mariner Innovations, our partner specializing in application modernization and IT professional services, has completed the migration from z/OS and IDMS to .NET.

Read more about z/OS & z/VSE migrations >

Explore CA IDMS migration solutions >

The Challenges

In order for the Province to meet the present and future needs, JOIN had to undergo modernization to provide a foundation that can easily add new functionality when required by evolving legislation and economic contexts. The initiative required code modernization, database re-engineering, new component development and migration to a new target platform.

Learn more about the project in our webinar on IDMS migrations.

The Project

The project's main objectives included:

• Implement a solution that would allow full migration of JOIN off the existing mainframe hardware and software base
• Deliver a fully migrated technical application environment that would result in reduced overall costs of operations and increased supportability and sustainability of the application base.

The migration had to minimize retraining for the development and support staff by maintaining the application code, external applications support, and existing user interface for online screens, while maintaining ongoing operations.

“We used our automated testing product TestMatch intensively during this project. TestMatch offers automated recording and replay of complete scenarios or individual sessions and it can be used for both functional testing and stress testing. The product goes as far as providing detailed analysis of response times and throughput, and also contains helpful utilities to detect performance problems. It calculates elaborate test scenario coverage statistics and the pass rate of replayed tests.” - Louis Heymans, Managing Director, Astadia

Find out why TestMatch is an essential tool in complex transformation projects >

The Benefits

Some of the benefits of the methodology and and tools we used include:

• Minimal risks  
• Minimal change management
• No business interruption
• Project with a short duration
• No user retraining, as the migrated application retains its functionality

Get in touch with our experts to find out how to migrate business applications in a seamless, automated process.