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Platform Migrations   You are not alone. Deciding which platform will best serve your company's future, then plotting a migration path to it, requires careful evaluation. When is it time to move to a 32-bit operating system? Which makes more sense, given your needs: Windows 95 or Windows NT? Is abandoning the 16-bit 3.1x platform cost efficient—or even necessary? We talked with consultants, project managers, and industry analysts in an attempt to shed some light on such questions.
 
   Your organization's success depends on building strong business relationships. To do this, you need to respond quickly to your customer's problems, get the right information to the people who can solve their problems, and ensure they can reach you through multiple touch points.
 
   Hi-Tech Gateway’s approach for the migration of a legacy from a SOURCE platform to a TARGET platform requires the analysis, adaptation and validation of all the software modules that make up that application with the following requirements:
  • low availability of the customer's skills: a migration operation is often accompanied by other work,
  • minimization of application freezing: the applications develop continually,
  • minimization of the rate of faults to guarantee good forecasting of lead times and costs,
  • speed, reliability and efficiency of the validation procedures that determine the pace of the project,
  • incremental debugging to reduce the cost of optimizing the result,
  • maintaining or improving performance and maintainability
 
   Complete knowledge of the SOURCE and TARGET cultures associated with automating the implementation procedures is indispensable to the success of such projects.
 
   Our platform migration is made up of:
  • the migration of GCOS6/7/8 platforms to Unix/NT/Oracle/Tuxedo
  • the migration of GCOS7/8 platforms to Os390/DB2/CICS (see diagram)
  • the migration of Tandem platforms to Unix/NT/Os390
  • the migration of VMS platforms to Unix/NT
 
   User interface conversion:
 
   User interface conversion covers:
  • eliminating the presentation data of existing programs with
  • change of applications to message mode (e.g. XML)
  • regeneration of Mainframe screens in chosen target syntax (e.g. Java or JSP)

   Unlike Web-to-Host or PC-to-Host emulation solutions, the result produced in a native syntax (Java, VB, JSP) can then be maintained with the standard tools on the market. There is only a single maintenance point from the user interface. The XML coding considerably improves the readability of the processed applications.

 
   The Move To 32
 
   At this point, the biggest decision many IS managers face is not whether to move to a 32-bit environment but when. Today's brawniest business, graphics, and multimedia applications are being developed in 32-bit code. For businesses that find themselves outgrowing the more adolescent musculature of Windows 3.1, the passage to Windows 95 or Windows NT is attractive and probably inevitable.
 
   Despite much initial confusion over Windows 95, and a general lack of knowledge about Windows NT, both operating systems now have established themselves in the Windows pantheon. Few people in the industry question the basic superiority both systems hold over Windows 3.1x. In general, Win95 and NT are more robust and offer far greater stability than their predecessor. This greater stability translates into greater productivity—and lower cost of ownership.
 
   95 Vs. NT
 
   The question of when to migrate is tempered by the question of which system to choose. Each package has strengths and shortcomings. Commonly, Microsoft pitches NT as the business platform and Win95 as a consumer OS. The technical differences between Windows 95 and Windows NT, however, often are only vaguely understood. These differences are crucial to any corporation drafting a migration path to a new 32-bit Windows platform.
 
   One of the key differences between Windows 95 and Windows NT is that each have different system registries. Technically, this means that applications register themselves in different locations. What it means for MIS people is that there isn't an automatic upgrade path from Windows 95 to Windows NT quite yet.
 
   Windows 95 offers substantially wider support for hardware devices—4,000 devices compared to 3,000 devices in Windows NT 4.0. Some of NT's key device support holes are in multimedia devices, plug-and-play capabilities, and PCMCIA. Many IS managers also agree that Windows 95 offers somewhat easier installation and wide-scale deployment than NT.
 
   Windows NT does not support Virtual Device Drivers (VxDs), so some applications that work on Windows 95 won't run on NT. Also, Windows NT's design prohibits applications from directly accessing hardware devices. This can cause problems for older applications, or for current applications that lack the proper Windows NT drivers. On the other hand, Windows NT runs all applications in protected memory space, which contributes to more reliable overall stability.
 
   Windows 95 operates using a mixture of 32- and 16-bit code. Windows NT, however, operates in a 100% 32-bit environment. This means higher-power performance, which is manifested in features such as unlimited system resources and pre-emptive multitasking. Windows NT is designed to run on high-octane PowerPC- and RISC-based systems, as well.
 
   Windows NT also offers much greater security than Windows 95. While Win95 provides user validation features, NT features system protection from the file level up.
 
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