Infrastructure

IDMS applications conversion to DB2

JR Schulden, IST–SIS

The University of California, Berkeley, is considering migrating its IDMS/MVS-based administrative systems to DB2's relational database management system — also on an MVS platform. The recommendation is to convert from Computer Associates' (CA) IDMS/DB/DC 14.0 database management system to IBM's CICS version 4.1 or higher and DB2 v6.1 processing environment.

Some reasons for doing this conversion include:

• The Financial Systems are DB2, PeopleSoft, and DB2/COBOL/CICS. This would put all UC Berkeley administrative systems in a common database architecture.

• UC Berkeley's IDMS contract will expire in two years, August 2004. Since UC Berkeley already has a license for DB2 and this is the DBMS of choice for UC Berkeley's applications, eliminating the IDMS license would provide a significant savings.

• It would be easier to do web interfaces with the central student data being in DB2, a relational database.

• It is difficult to find experienced IDMS programmers and developers. In DB2, UC Berkeley would have the ability to recruit necessary expertise to support systems. UC Berkeley would be in a better position to employ cross-functional IT support, both for application programmers and DBA's.

• As the IDMS user base diminishes, CA has been decreasing its budget for support and enhancements.

• Sustainable position to maintain and enhance core student systems

IST considered alternatives, including:

• Renegotiate an acceptable CA contract renewal. This has significant long-term ongoing costs and may not be a sustainable position after 5-10 years. The future direction, and therefore support, of IDMS by Computer Associates is uncertain, leaving UC Berkeley in a vulnerable position. Finally, this option does not offer the feature-rich development and ad hoc reporting environments available with DB2.

• Reengineering and rewriting the application using DB2. This is quite costly and would take a long time forcing us into another CA license in 2004. SIS believes there is no compelling reason to rewrite or reengineer these applications, since they currently meet UC Berkeley's business requirements and the users are very happy with them. Although rewriting would result in a more native mode implementation of the system in a DB2 environment, the time, costs, and risks associated with a rewrite (especially for applications of this size) appear to be too great to offset the additional benefits that might be realized.

• Finding, purchasing, and then modifying to UC Berkeley's requirements, a software package that fulfills the functions of the existing system, such as PeopleSoft Student. This option was felt to be more costly and, since the student systems meet current needs, not justifiable. While packages seem to provide an excellent, cost-effective alternative, certain system areas are prone to require too much customization and, thereby, become more like a rewrite project in terms of cost and risk. While packaged solutions may be implemented more quickly and with slightly lower risk than rewriting a system, when you include all the associated costs — customization, testing, training, conversion, and business impact — this alternative may be as expensive as a system rewrite.

• Convert existing systems. This has the advantage of getting us to a common administrative environment without reinventing the business logic of the systems. It is a manageable cost and time frame (1.5 years). The only disadvantage is that you do not increase the functionality of the systems, but you do position yourself better for the future, particularly for web-enabling the applications.

The last alternative is the one that we chose.

The UC Berkeley IDMS systems conversion to DB2 will involve seven IDMS schemas, 350 sub-schemas, 23 systems, and approximately 2,000 programs in six different programming languages (ADSO, COBOL, PL1, Assembler, EZ-Trieve, Culprit) plus related JCL and copylibs. These systems are primarily batch and legacy, online update and query programs with access using 327x terminal emulation and screen scraping via the World Wide Web. The work on the conversion is expected to begin spring 2002 and be completed by fall 2003.

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Berkeley Computing & Communications, Volume 12, Number 1 (Winter 2002)
Copyright 2002, The Regents of the University of California