Migrating away from CA Gen

Xact offers a unique solution for companies with CA Gen legacy systems that want to

  • Move away from CA Gen
  • Preserve business knowledge in CA Gen applications
  • Reduce costs
  • Use licence-free, open source languages or platforms

CA Gen is previously known under these names COOL:Gen, AllFusion Gen, Advantage Gen, IEF/Composer

Xact Solution: Automated source code migration from CA Gen

CA Gen source code can be migrated to new target languages – 100% automated – using Xact’s migration tool.

CA Gen migration

CA Gen migration

The migration tool supports multiple target source languages: Cobol, Java, JavaScript/HTML and EGL
and can easily be adapted to new languages, e.g. C#/.Net

CA Gen, Cool:Gen, migration, source code, mainframe, z/OS, COBOL, Java, C#, .NET, EGL, JavaScript, HTML, CICS, IMS, platform, Unix, Linux, Windows, modernization, conversion, automated

The migrated code and target environment have no dependencies to CA Gen and all the converted code is delivered as native source code. The converted source code is both maintainable and license-free.

Different source and target platforms are supported: Mainframe z/OS (CICS/IMS), Linux, UNIX and Windows.

CA Gen migration projects

The migration tool is developed by Xact and has been used for the last decade to run successful migration projects for large global companies moving away from CA Gen.

The following describes some of the migration projects that Xact has been running recently.
Please contact Xact for references or more detailed information about these projects.

CASE 1: Migration of CA Gen to hand-maintainable Java, Cobol, Web frontend (JavaScript/HTML) and EGL 

Customer: Global truck manufacturer

Overall aim for customer was to phase out all CA Gen technology. This was achieved by migrating the CA Gen code to Java, Cobol, Web frontend (JavaScript/HTML) and EGL.

In the original system most of the CA Gen backend code was generated to Cobol running on an IBM z/OS mainframe with IMS.

The User interfaces consisted of CA Gen generated 3270 screens, CA Gen generated GUI clients and handwritten GUI clients.

Highlights
  • 100 % automatically generated Java, Cobol, JavaScript/HTML and EGL code from CA Gen code
  • Complete removal of all dependencies to CA Gen in migrated code
  • Automated migration that enabled fast re-conversions
  • Configurable conversion tool easily adaptable to customer needs
  • All functionality preserved in migrated code (1:1 functional conversion)
  • Stepwise approach that minimized risks and enabled thorough tests on smaller systems before applying large scale
  • Xact assistance and guidance in bridging old and new system during the migration period
  • Full technical support from Xact in all areas and phases of the migration project
  • Experts in EGL, Cobol, Java and JavaScript/HTML were available at Xact throughout the project.
Migration targets

The CA Gen code was developed and deployed in different sites and environments. There were also different future scenarios for each business area and therefore the customer decided to migrate CA Gen to different target code languages.

ca-gen-migration-3

The project included these target languages and types of migrations:

CASE 2: Migration of CA Gen to hand-maintainable Web frontend (JavaScript/HTML) and Cobol backend

 Customer: A Nordic Pension Insurance Company

Xact performed a migration project for the customer with the purpose of moving a large system developed in CA Gen to Web frontend (JavaScript/HTML) and Cobol backend.

In the original system most of the CA Gen backend code was generated to COBOL running on an IBM z/OS mainframe with CICS.  The frontend consisted of CA Gen generated GUI clients.

Highlights
  • 100 % automatically generated JavaScript/HTML frontend and Cobol backend from CA Gen code
  • Complete removal of all dependencies to CA Gen in migrated code
  • Automated migration that enabled fast re-conversions
  • Configurable conversion tool easily adaptable to customer needs
  • All code delivered as license-free and royalty-free
  • All functionality preserved in migrated code (1:1 functional conversion)
  • Stepwise approach that minimized risks and enabled thorough tests on smaller systems before applying large scale
  • Full technical support from Xact in all areas and phases of the migration project
  • Experts in Cobol and JavaScript/HTML were available at Xact throughout the project.
Migration targets

The project included these target languages and types of migrations:

ca-gen-migration-4