Fellow Zitel/Matridigm fans,
There appears to be a new rival that has developed an automated Y2000 solution. ConSyGen (CSGI) claims a toolset that does what Matridigm does. (See below for an excerpt from their web page at www.consygen.com).
The interesting thing is that they appear to be ahead of Z/M in their partnerships. In October they announced an alliance with computer giant, Unisys. The agreement calls for Unisys to market Unisys computer systems in conjunction with ConSyGen's automated Software Conversion Services to current and prospective Unisys users. Another agreement was signed with Strategia, this is an exclusive arrangement
in North America, the United Kingdom, France and Scandinavia for Strategia's Year 2000 conversion projects involving Bull mainframe computers.
But perhaps most interesting of all is their relationship with Oracle. (see bap.us.oracle.com:2000/html/129.htm) that may extend beyond Y2K problems. They appear to have a toolset called AVATAR that enables the rapid and guaranteed conversion of all varieties of COBOL programs from any source to Oracle, on any choice of open systems.
Conclusions? The automated Y2K solution has gone beyond proof-of-concept but it's hard to say how effective ConSyGen's tools (or for that matter Z/M's) will be in the total conversion picture.
Either way, the field is a little less exclusive that what it used to
be.
Comments anyone?
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Extract from ConSyGen's Web page:
ConSyGen 2000 ÿis a unique toolset for finding and fixing Year 2000
problems automatically. ÿDeveloped by ConSyGen, Inc. (CSGI), it is used
in a services project to find and fix Year 2000 date problems in
software applications and data. ÿOther approaches are limited to the
identification of date occurrences and problems; however, ConSyGen 2000
both identifies and corrects the date problems automatically, thereby
reducing dramatically the manual correction process.
Highlights of the ConSyGen 2000 ÿmethodology:
* a full review of all of a client's code (ConSyGen's Automated
Cataloging Exercise) to ensure that all source entities have been
received and can be referenced;
* automated analysis of the client's source code, using a range of search
criteria to identify and log date occurrences. ÿIncluded in these
criteria are string searches for common variable names, tests for
implicit characteristics, clause identification and analysis;
* consultation with client staff to identify non-standard naming or
processing conventions;
* establishment of a thorough cross-reference mapping of all procedural references to any of the identified occurrences to formulate rules for translation. ÿThis cross reference also maintains traceability within each program and shows all variables within the programs that are affected;
* automated generation of all standard transformation rules, based on
client confirmation of required formats. Client staff working with CSGI direction will determine any custom translation rules as appropriate;
* the ability to apply varying rules of conversion to each date occurrence within the system; as testing aids, ÿConSyGen 2000 will generate a Change List to validate the completeness and accuracy of the corrections; where necessary, it will also generate a temporary system date over-ride routine. ÿDelivered code will contain both the old and the new code for comparison; expansion of date values, as appropriate, in the referenced data and data structures;
* automatic generation of data extract and load utilities to permit the migration of client data;
* generation of comprehensive reporting throughout the identification and conversion process; |
