Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation announced on January 30th the release of its NeoData software product, the latest addition to its suite of modernize-as-you-migrate solutions for legacy mainframe applications. NeoData provides an easy and flexible route for converting VSAM data to Microsoft(R) SQL Server(R) without having to make changes to the COBOL code. Data that might seem to be locked within the COBOL-specific, proprietary formats of the VSAM data system can now be opened up to the richer query environment provided by SQL Server. NeoData provides a Data Mapper tool that handles the challenging aspects of VSAM to SQL migrations, such as multiple record formats and the COBOL OCCURS clause, which often derail attempts to perform this migration manually. Early users of NeoData have been excited by the ease with which they are able to migrate their VSAM data to SQL Server. Sheila Silva, chief information officer of Ability Resources Inc, an insurance group specializing in long-term care insurance, states, “The growth plans for Ability Resources dictate that our systems have to be centered on a flexible, scalable platform such as SQL Server(R). Consequently we had to move a core system from the mainframe to ASP.NET and were looking for ways to make the data more accessible than it was within VSAM files. Fortunately we heard about NeoData and were given the opportunity to be early users of the product as we couldn’t have completed the project in such a timely manner without it. With no changes to the COBOL file handling code, NeoData gave us a low-risk solution that also delivered speed of implementation and the desired functionality.” 

For more information about this exciting new software product, read the press release.