Migrating an MVS Mainframe Application to a PC

Due to advances in computer architecture, performance of the PC now exceeds that of the typical mainframe. However, computing cost on a mainframe continues to greatly exceed that on a PC. Thus, migrating mainframe applications to PC can result in substantial savings. The major stumbling block in doing this is the cost of software migration itself. This paper discusses an experiment in using a software tool approach to migrate a large billing application from MVS running on a mainframe to UNIX running on a PC. We developed tools to port the application from mainframe to PC with minimal code rewriting and enable transferring data cheaply so that processing can be done without interrupting other ongoing mainframe operations. We were able to transfer data from the MVS mainframe to a Linux PC and complete its processing in less total time than if done entirely on the original mainframe.