Speedware Announces AS/400-to-HP Migration Service

August 10, 2010 Alex Woodie

Interested in moving your AS/400 workloads to Hewlett-Packard servers running Windows, Linux, or UNIX? If the answer is “yes,” then you might want to consider the services of Speedware, a Canadian migration specialist that recently announced a new partnership with HP to migrate older AS/400, iSeries, and System i applications to HP systems.

Speedware is a 30-year-old IT products and services company based in Montreal, Quebec. Today, the 50-person company focuses primarily on two segments: business intelligence, and providing application modernization and migration products and services that target the IBM mainframe and midrange servers, as well as older HP platforms, such as the now-defunct HP3000 server, which HP killed in 2003.

In late July, Speedware announced it has formed a partnership with HP to migrate legacy AS/400 applications to run on new HP servers. The target for Speedware here is older OS/400 (pre V5R1) applications, and perhaps even a few i5/OS (V5R1 to V5R4) applications. (The company will not likely do too many Power Systems-IBM i migrations, if for no other reason than the “Power Systems” and “IBM i” names refer to newer hardware and software, which customers make big investments to obtain and maintain, and aren’t likely to abandon any time soon.)

Speedware plans to make heavy use of the ML-iMPACT code conversion tool as part of its engagement with HP. The tool, which is developed by the German company Skykora-ML, is said to be very efficient at converting RPG code into “native” C# and Java code. Speedware formed a partnership with Sykora-ML early last year to license the tool for AS/400 modernization and migration projects.

Christine McDowell, strategic alliances manager at Speedware, makes the case for migrating from “legacy” AS/400 applications to newer HP servers running Windows, Linux, and Unix.

“There are still over 200,000 AS/400 servers in use worldwide. These customers are frustrated with the limitations inherent in the platform and are reaching out to Speedware and HP,” McDowell says in a press release. “Our end-to-end modernization solutions, including products such as the ML-iMPACT code conversion tool, remain integral components of our strategy for success in the AS/400 market.”

Speedware listed several reasons why companies might want to migrate their AS/400 applications. The list includes: a shortage of RPG and COBOL experts; difficulty integrating AS/400 applications to other platforms; high total cost of ownership (counting expenses for hardware, software, human resources, and maintenance); a “lack of business agility” (which means it’s difficult to adapt applications to meet current business needs); and the lack of a native graphical interface.

Speedware, which underwent a change of ownership earlier this summer (it is no longer owned by Americans, and employees now own a good chunk of the company), has focused on application migration for the last 15 years. The company claims to have a 100 percent success rate in more than 100 migration projects, including some big “blue chip” companies.