Fujitsu Legacy Modernization Leaps to New Level

Server farm, security, print, scalability and usability enhancements included in .NET 2.0 supporting releases

• By James E. Powell
• 03/28/2007

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation today announced the release of NeoBatch™ V2 and NeoKicks V2. The tools bring batch JCL and CICS COBOL applications to the .NET platform with what the company calls a “modernize-as-you-migrate approach.”

The enhancements support the most recent release of the .NET Framework, ensuring migrated applications have access to all the latest features of the .NET development and production environments. Some enhancements provide users with greater scalability using server farms and ASP.NET 2.0 master pages, more security options, and many user interface improvements.

Basim Kadhim, chief architect for NeoBatch and NeoKicks, notes, “Supporting systems in the 1,000+ MIPS range encouraged us to take the next logical step for NeoBatch in providing explicit support for server farms. Many batch systems are processing disjoint sets of data so can easily be split to run on multiple servers, ensuring that all jobs complete within existing or, more often, shortened, batch windows. ... We also added Visual Basic to the list of languages supported by NeoKicks when generating the Web user interface.”

NeoKicks V2 integrates with Visual Studio 2005, uses ASP.NET 2.0 master pages to support user interface customizability, adds NeoKicks runtime support for CICS TD Queue Triggers, and supports the latest release of NetCOBOL for .NET.

NeoBatch supports commonly used JCL statements and utilities, including the creation of Generation Data Groups (GDG). APIs are provided for submitting jobs from other programs, such as online NeoKicks applications. Standard Windows security mechanisms can restrict access to NeoBatch datasets and job output. NeoBatch allows a company’s development staff to take advantage of Windows-based tools, and provides a path for future development with the JCL-to-Microsoft JScript conversion feature.

NeoKicks provides the critical migration software for CICS migration to the .NET environment so applications can connect existing logic to Web services. The look and feel of application interfaces are preserved in the initial legacy migration when they are converted to ASP.NET Web Forms and can be enhanced using COBOL, C#, or Visual Basic, utilizing graphical controls.

NeoBatch V2 and NeoKicks V2 are now available. More information is available at http://www.netcobol.com