Expansion of complex legacy systems with a modern data platform
Our customers are our best references.
A large number of customers use tcVISION in daily productive IT operations with different platforms, input databases and files as well as output databases, cloud and big data systems.
The constantly changing landscapes and technologies are a challenge for the BOS development laboratory. However, this challenge is gladly accepted and so, over time - in cooperation with our customers - tcVISION has matured into a solution that is second to none. Hardly any comparable solution offers such a variety of integration options, application areas and operating platforms..
In this blog and in the following blogs, we want to shed more light on certain areas of application with customers. Our sales department will be happy to provide you with more detailed information.
tcVISION is in use worldwide with customers in the USA, Asia, Australia and Africa. One of BOS partners is CCA Software, based near Melbourne, Australia.
CCA Software is a leading Australian software company that specializes in data integration solutions with tcVISION. CCA delivers innovative solutions with partners to customers all around the world. The technologies support IBM mainframe and the LUW platforms with solutions for Big Data, Data Analytics, real- time bi-directional data integration, legacy modernization and data migration.
There are a number of tcVISION users from state authorities and state ministries (Victorie, NSW, ACT) and central ministries based in Canberra, ACT.
This report describes the application of the Victoria State Department of Transportation. The Department of Transport (DoT) is responsible for managing the road network across Victoria, and the management of all driver's licenses and vehicle registrations.
In order to meet customer requirements for digital solutions, legacy systems that have been in use for many years should be adapted to modern requirements and implemented on new agile platforms. The legacy systems are based on an IBM mainframe with IMS, Db2 databases and VSAM files.
The high costs for the maintenance and operating costs of the mainframe applications and the increasingly difficult search for qualified technical staff as well as the DoT's dependency on their existing data led to the decision to continue the legacy application while the data is available on a modern platform and replicated between the platforms in real time.
The DoT had already made several attempts to modernize the existing systems. However, these attempts failed due to the complexity of the systems and the resulting conversion costs.
The Department of Transport and CCA Software carried out a Proof of Concept (POC) with the aim of transforming the legacy mainframe systems, providing a modern data platform and - related to this - building up new business services.
During the POC, a new data platform and, within a short period of time, new business offers based on tcVISION as a data synchronization tool were developed.
The solution was created using an agile methodology that was jointly developed between a multidisciplinary team from DoT and system consultants from CCA Software.
Additional business services (e.g. mobile - SMS payments and online vehicle transfers) were developed over a period of 7 weeks to demonstrate the ability to quickly build new functions on the modern platform.
The result was a cost-efficient and modern infrastructure.
Thanks to the successful transformation of the legacy systems, the expectations of DoT's customers could be met with new services:
- Internal and external users of the DoT get data access via new interfaces and update functions.
- Reduction of the dependency on the mainframe data and resource access.
- New business functions were made possible through the integration of modern elements (APIs, mobile apps, digital channels).
- The time to market for new business services has been significantly shortened due to the interoperability of modern hardware and software.
- The real-time and bidirectional data synchronization by tcVISION between the mainframe data and the new platforms is the basis for gradually converting other legacy systems and implementing new business initiatives.
The applications of the Department of Transport are examples of a gradual modernization of mainframe applications on new platforms. Here it is necessary to synchronize the data between the mainframe and the new platform in real time. Both data storage platforms (mainframe and Windows Azure Cloud) are equal (Master-Master concept). Modifications to the data can be carried out on both data platforms. A bidirectional data replication is therefore essential.
tcVISION supports bidirectional replication in real time and thus supports a step-by-step modernization or migration without having to create your own synchronization modules and programs.
The bidirectional data synchronization in real time enables changes, for example in a PostgreSQL table on AWS or Azure, to be replicated on the mainframe.
You can find an overview of all supported input and output destinations here.
