Micro Focus aids in COBOL modernization

BANGALORE, INDIA: Micro Focus, the leading provider of enterprise application management and modernization solutions, has continued its commitment towards standardization and modernization of Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL).

As enterprises increase their focus on ROI from IT spend, Micro Focus urges organizations to modernize COBOL systems and applications to maximize their investments in existing IT systems.

Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, has been a stalwart in COBOL market place. It provides a unique set of solutions under one umbrella, with a strong focus in three main areas - Application Development, Application Modernization and Application Information Management.

"There's a whole lot of legacy throughout the world in these applications. It helps you do an assessment of the whole application and also helps companies do a lot of impact analysis," says Ashish Masand, country manager, Micro Focus, India. "If customers want to SOA-enable their COBOL and unlock the value, it is possible."

Micros Focus' Application Modernization solution enables customers to make sense of their application portfolios, improve the productivity of application developers, take advantage of Web services to modernize core applications and exploit low-cost contemporary platforms, such as Windows, UNIX or Linux.

"Our COBOL Technology Solution allows customers to extend and integrate existing applications to meet new and emerging business needs in the most cost effective and quickest way," adds Masand.

COBOL used to be much talked about language in the '80's. Of late, it has receded into the background and perceived to be dead. But surprisingly, some 75 percent of the world's business data is still processed in COBOL. "Because of the massive installed base, it was too expensive to try to replace all the code," he says.

Why COBOL is a better option for mission critical applications? "There are over 200 billion lines of COBOL code in production today. CIOs across industry verticals, have started viewing COBOL as an asset and are looking at ways to integrate COBOL with newer applications," he explains.

Why CIOs should look at IT modernization as an imperative? "Simply because COBOL doesn't invite any kind of disruptions. It helps in extending the existing system with a new capability and expands further," says Masand. "For any enterprise, business agility is a driver."

"If CIOs want to extend the existing capability, and whether they have a COBOL mainframe or not, they can upgrade the system cost effectively. They can also write a new COBOL application," he explains. "If you have to re-write an existing application, why not COBOL?"

"Enterprise application is the core of any business. The existing legacy helps you modernize and integrate with other applications, says Masand. "Our focus is on letting customers know methods to modernize - be it any application which is of mission critical capability on COBOL."

Micro Focus is also focusing on the outsourcing community. Masand says that the outsourcing industry has realised that they are missing in this space. "They can add immense value by modernising/re-energising the existing COBOL Mainframe applications."

Some of the top ten outsourcing companies in India are in touch with us to expand Micro focus skills. "Our primary focus is to outsource the system integrators and help move up the value chain."

Micro Focus has made couple of acquisitions in the last six months. It acquired NetManage to strengthen its position in the delivery of terminal emulation, host connectivity and service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies within the Application Modernization market. Acquisition of Liant Customer Portal has further reinforced Micro Focus' Application Development solution. It has strengthened its position in the delivery of technology within the Application Development market.

"These products help in the integration for mainframe-based applications," says Masand.

India focus

"It is an exciting time for Micro Focus in India. Our focus has been very strong in the last five years, and we have added 120 plus customers in India," says Masand.

Citing examples of use of COBOL, he informed that the entire application of LIC's network, with 2048 branches across the country, runs on Micro Focus' COBOL application. Even the core banking applications of State Bank of India runs on Cobol, he added.

"We have products that can handle database up to 128 terra bytes, in a COBOL fact file structure," he said, adding, "Once developed and deployed, it never fails."

"There are no mainframe-based customers in India. They are all on Linux, Windows and Unix. Deploying COBOL application is much more simpler and easier," he says.

In all, our products help customers modernize and unlock the value from the essence, retain COBOL, develop it and deploy it in a cost-effective way on Linux, Unix, Windows or any platform of your choice.