ASNA Monarch Migration Tools and Services
ASNA Monarch is an enteprise IBM i application migration suite.
After using its deep analysis of your RPG application, Monarch migrates your enterprise IBM i RPG
III, ILE RPG IV, or Synon/CA 2E application to either C# or ASNA Encore (an RPG-like syntax for
.NET) on the .NET plaform. Monarch also, optionally, migrates your IBM i DB 2 database to Microsoft
SQL Server.
Read more about ASNA's migration offerings
Experienced team, great tools, and a successful track record
ASNA has been migrating IBM i RPG applications since 2005. The application types we've
migrated over the years include finance, aerospace, insurance, manufacturing, retail,
and many others. We have helped businesses worldwide ensure that their RPG application
persist and their business remains strong as their RPG programmers retire.
Our highly-skilled Enterprise Migration Team has the depth of knowledge and experience
that is so critical to a successful enterprise migration.
Staged migration with ASNA WingsRPG
Migrating enterprise applications is challenging work—don't let anyone tell you
otherwise. There are lots of details and challenges to resolve. For many shops, getting
your arms around all of the work necessary for a migration is nearly overwhelming.
ASNA Monarch is the only migration solution helps with this challenge. ASNA Wings
can provide the first step in a full-blown Monarch RPG application migration. With Wings,
you get an immediate return on investing with your improved RPG user interface, and the option
to later use Wings' modernized displays in a later Monarch migration. Monarch is the only
RPG migration solution available that offers a step-wise migration option.
RPG or C# or both!
With ASNA Monarch you aren't locked into a single target language for the migration.
Monarch targets either Encore RPG (an IBM i free-format RPG-like .NET language) or
Microsoft C#. However, Monarch has a clever trick baked in—at any time, migrated
projects originally created with Encore RPG can saved as C# code.
Monarch's dual migration path empowers your nearly-retired RPG programmers to have a
hand in the migation (with a language they understand) and help hand off the application
off to younger programmers. When you're ready for that hand-off, Monarch lets you very
easily hand the application over to younger programs in a language they understand.
Monarch lets you escape Synon/CA 2E's grip
Synon generated applications bring special challenges to the application migration
process. Creating Synon applications is a very different discipline than creating RPG
programs (Synon programmers generally don't consider themselves RPG programmers). Synon
models (which define business data and rules) are coupled with Synon templates to
produce Synon applications. Synon-generated applications cannot be migrated without deep
regard for its models and templates.
ASNA Monarch uses Synon's model to migrate the application by producing understandable
and useful migrated code. Monarch also has faithful implementations of Synon's
templates. The result is migrated source code that not only compiles and works, but can
be easily used by non-Synon programmers to perform program maintenance and enhancement.
A successful migration is more than just translating source code
RPG applications don't live in a vacuum—they have dependencies on many IBM i
facilities and idioms. Some of these facilities include the QTEMP library, program
activation groups, RPG's unique program call, a deep (and often convoluted) connection
between program logic and display files, print processes and spooling, RPG's record
level access, DB2's file members, and many third-party dependencies such as EDI, faxing,
Web services, and barcode processing.
ASNA Monarch is far more than a source code translator. Monarch Execution-Time Framework
provides the critical infrastructure that fulfills RPG's expectations of these, and many
other, subtle, but important RPG expectations.
Monarch lets you pick the best DB for you
Migrating your RPG enterprise application to .NET doesn't necessarily mean unplugging
your IBM i. A good number of our migration customers choose to leave their database on
the IBM i. Their reasons include the need to get the application in younger programmer's
hand as quickly as possible, a dependence of third-party components that they'd rather
not replace, or there are services in place that use the IBM i database that aren't
directly related to the line-of-business application being migrated.
On the other hand, some customers want very much to unplug the IBM i. For customers
sunsetting the IBM i, keeping the IBM i's DB database isn't an option.
With Monarch, it's also possible to have the best of both worlds--leave the DB on the
IBM i initially and then come back later and migrate the database to SQL Server. No
matter which database you chose, Monarch's got you covered.
