DEPAUL UNIVERSITY STUDY FINDS THAT MICRO FOCUS® ENABLES LEGACY TRANSFORMATION AS MUCH AS 25 TIMES FASTER THAN OTHER METHODS
-- Study conducted by DePaul's Institute for Software Metrics released today --
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 28, 2002 - - Results of a study conducted by DePaul University's Institute for Software Metrics reveal that Micro Focus' leading global enterprise development solutions are up to 25 times faster than traditional methods of Web-enablement. The researchers used model applications with independent software consultants to study various approaches for moving mission-critical legacy applications to the Web. The most efficient and cost effective approach was the use of Micro Focus EnterpriseLink®, an application processing integrator that transforms legacy applications into Java.
A full manual rewrite of the legacy system in Java was compared to the use of the Micro Focus legacy transformation product. A team lead by the Directors of DePaul University's Institute for Software Metrics, Howard A. Kanter and Thomas J. Muscarello, found that using EnterpriseLink offered companies a significant tool which can help achieve major time and money savings. The results showed that the EnterpriseLink approach was completed in less than 4 percent of the time required to rewrite the application in Java, and can be accomplished for 3.21 percent of the salary cost, based on United States programmer salary survey, of the Java rewrite (Data Masters 2001).
"We believe that the results of this study suggest that there are significant advantages in time and money from using software tools that automate the Web-enablement of mission -critical mainframe legacy systems when compared to a full system rewrite using the Java language," said Dr. Kanter. "Tools such as these will provide increased return-on-investment for companies seeking to 'webify' desired applications," added Dr. Muscarello.
As IT departments work to bring their companies' custom and legacy applications online or into the client/server environment, transformation becomes an increasingly critical component of their budgets. Gartner estimates that of Global 2000 companies, 80 percent use Java, and of these, 63 percent use COBOL as well. Nearly all enterprises need to access mainframe COBOL applications on the network, as well as make data in these applications available both inside and outside the company in a Web environment.
The DePaul study, entitled "An Empirical Analysis of Alternative Software Strategies for Migrating Mission Critical Legacy Applications to the World Wide Web," is now available from Micro Focus at www.microfocus.com or DePaul University by contacting Dr. Kanter at hkanter@depaul.edu .
About DePaul University Institute for Software Metrics
DePaul's Institute for Software Metrics was formed by Dr. Howard A. Kanter and Dr. Thomas J. Muscarello to perform and encourage research into software measurement that supports large-scale software maintenance and conversion projects.
About Micro Focus
Micro Focus is the industry leader in COBOL development solutions spanning traditional maintenance and program understanding to business rule mining, Web-enablement and user-interface transformation. With 70,000 licensed users at more than 7,000 sites around the world, Micro Focus offers unsurpassed breadth of platform support, performance and scalability, and the most comprehensive suite of development and integration environments to help customers succeed in taking full advantage of the power of their legacy systems. Founded in 1976, Micro Focus is a global company that employs more than 450 people worldwide, with principal offices in the United Kingdom and United States. For more information, visit www.microfocus.com.
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Micro Focus and EnterpriseLink are registered trademarks of Micro Focus International Ltd. All non-Micro Focus products mentioned in this announcement are property of their respective owners. Editor's note: To reach Dr. Kanter or Dr Muscarello for interviews, please contact Robin Florzak, DePaul Media Relations, at 312-362-8592 or rflorzak@depaul.edu
