GCP – Accelerating mainframe modernization with Google Cloud Dual Run and mLogica

Mainframe modernization is no longer a question of if, but how, with organizations seeking ways to accelerate modernization while also minimizing costs and reducing risks.

Today, Google Cloud and mLogica announced a strategic partnership focused on accelerating and de-risking mainframe application modernization, combining mLogica’s LIBER*M automated code refactoring platform with Google Cloud Dual Run for validation and de-risking, offering a non-disruptive and validated modernization path to our joint customers. 

LIBER*M provides automated assessment, code analysis, dependency mapping, and code transformation capabilities. It supports multiple target languages and platforms, providing a crucial foundation for refactoring projects.

Dual Run enables simultaneous operation of mainframe and cloud applications in parallel, letting you compare and validate refactored applications before cutting over. This, along with powerful testing capabilities, enables a controlled, phased transition, minimizing business disruption and substantially reducing the risks inherent in large-scale mainframe modernization projects.

This partnership with mLogica complements Google Cloud’s existing mainframe modernization solutions, including our Mainframe Refactor offering, with mLogica’s expertise and tools. Together, we can address a wide spectrum of mainframe languages and use cases, and ultimately provide customers with more modernization options.

Automated code refactoring with LIBER*M

Enterprises seeking a nuanced approach to mainframe modernization often combine multiple modernization patterns, for example, reimagining the application with Google Gemini Accelerated application rewrites, as well as refactoring workloads. For applications where innovation and new capabilities are critical, generative AI can help reimagine them from the ground-up as entirely new cloud-native applications and user experiences. But for workloads where modernization speed is critical, customers can choose automated code refactoring from legacy languages to modern equivalents, which optimizes for cloud deployment while delivering functional parity. This strategy maximizes innovation and cost-efficiency, balancing the desire for deep modernization with practical considerations of cost and time-to-value.

Refactoring involves transforming existing mainframe applications (often written in COBOL, Assembler and other legacy languages) into modern languages and architectures, typically Java or C# running on cloud-native platforms and services, through rule-based transformation. This is distinct from other modernization patterns such as replatforming, which focuses only on infrastructure changes, or rewriting, which recreates the target application from the ground-up.

Refactoring offers several advantages for customers, striking a good balance between modernization potential and speed: 

• Refactored applications leverage modern development practices (CI/CD, DevOps) and cloud-native services, enabling faster feature delivery and response to changing business needs.

• Modern languages and architectures are easier to maintain and enhance, reducing technical debt and expanding the pool of available talent.

• Refactored applications are designed to integrate with cloud services, such as databases, analytics, and AI/ML.

• Cloud-native architectures are inherently scalable and elastic, allowing applications to adapt to fluctuating demands.

• While refactoring requires an upfront investment, the long-term benefits of reduced infrastructure costs, improved efficiency, and faster innovation often lead to a lower total cost of ownership.

Refactoring doesn’t imply a monolithic approach. It supports a wide modernization spectrum, from automated code conversion to more extensive architectural redesign. The optimal approach depends on the specific application and business goals.

The mLogica modernization foundation

mLogica brings a comprehensive suite of tools and decades of experience to the mainframe modernization challenge. Key products include:

• LIBER*M: This platform provides automated assessment, code analysis, dependency mapping, and code transformation capabilities. It supports multiple target languages and platforms, providing a crucial foundation for refactoring projects.

• CAP*M: As a dedicated solution for database migration and modernization, CAP*M facilitates the transition from legacy databases (e.g., IMS, DB2) to open-source or cloud-native databases.

• STAR*M: Allows for automated testing during modernization.

These tools are complemented by mLogica’s deep expertise in mainframe technologies and modernization methodologies.

Google Cloud Dual Run directly addresses the key challenges customers face when refactoring mainframe applications: de-risking the modernization, validating and certifying the new system, and ensuring comprehensive testing. By enabling parallel operation of the original mainframe application and its modernized counterpart on Google Cloud, Dual Run eliminates the need for a “big bang” cutover, significantly reducing the risk of business disruption. Parallel operation of both legacy and modernized environments allows for continuous validation, helping to ensure the modernized application behaves as expected under real-world conditions. This kind of parallel processing facilitates extensive testing, including performance, functional, and regression testing, and identification of any discrepancies before the final switch.

Helping our joint customers 

This partnership is about delivering real outcomes for customers engaged in mainframe modernization, significantly reducing risk, accelerating time-to-value, and lowering overall costs. 

Together, we have certified the combined solution of Dual Run and mLogica’s tools, validating the effectiveness in real-world modernization scenarios. The combination of mLogica’s automated refactoring with LIBER*M and Google Cloud’s Dual Run parallel operation minimizes the potential for errors, downtime, and business disruption. Automation streamlines the modernization process, while Dual Run facilitates application validation and certification, alongside robust testing and a rollback capability for enhanced confidence. This combined solution lets you adopt a modern, cloud-native architecture efficiently and securely, positioning your organization for sustained innovation and growth.

mLogica’s LIBER*M and STAR*M products are available for customers directly on the Google Cloud Marketplace. Dual Run is available through our certified mainframe modernization implementation partners. For more details and inquiries please contact mainframe@google.com.