Recycling of legacy
applications
Return on IT
Cornerstone
Cornerstone Technology analyses
and converts legacy systems
By Fred Teunissen, chief editor ICT Magazine
Is it sensible to pay hundreds of programmers in India to redevelop legacy applications into today’s languages? Absolutely not, according to Tim Janssen, director of Cornerstone Technology,
who says such an approach is far too expensive, complex, and error-prone. “These systems contain decades worth of cumulative business process expertise, gradually distilled and fine-tuned.
That’s something you need to treasure, which is why converting is almost always more sensible
than reprogramming.” And the current generation of automatic conversion and modernization
technologies are now so advanced that they far outperform manual solutions.
Cornerstone Technology, based in Dordrecht, specializes
faults, improve the development process, analyze
and measuring all sorts of values, such as the quality
Legacy conversions and modernization
in software analysis and conversion. It has 12 in-house
risks, perform conversions, and carry out very
of the programming, risk areas, and its investment
Legacy programming using outdated technology can
specialists and about the same number of freelancers
focused system maintenance.”
value as a whole.”
be a threat to business continuity, because it is harder
to find staff to perform maintenance on it. Another
employed on a temporary and project basis. It may
be modestly sized, but the company punches far
ERP for IT
But to do this, such a tool does need to understand
drawback is that such applications are written in
above its weight. “If you take a closer look, you’ll
Cornerstone Technology has developed a number of
the system’s programming language and the workings
languages that make compatibility with web or cloud
see that we actually have a few thousand people
tools over the past 20 years to automate automation
of the database, where data is stored. And that’s
applications difficult or impossible. That is why
working for us,” Janssen says in earnest. “It’s just
itself. These tools are contained in the G4-Sigma suite
where Cornerstone’s unique expertise comes in.
conversion into modern languages can often be a
that all but 24 of them are robots.”
and G4/Repository. These form the heart of this
Many legacy systems are written in languages which
matter of urgency. Cornerstone’s G4 technology can
technology. A number of tools are based on these,
are virtually outdated. Cornerstone’s tools can
do this fully automatically. Manual solutions can
The robots he refers to are the software tools which
each with their own purpose. One of these is G4/
understand more than 80 legacy languages. These
barely match the consistency and quality of the result.
perform fully automated IT tasks which would
Analyzer, which performs a kind of MRI scan of an
include well-known ones such as Cobol, PL1, Ideal,
Millions of lines of code are fully automatically
otherwise take thousands of man-years. Within the
organization’s information systems. The data from
Natural, SQL, Java, C# .Net, Fortran, Delphi, C etc.,
converted into the most commonly used standard
IT world, these tools are known as ERP for IT, and
the scan is stored in a G4/Repository, which is used
but also more exotic ones such as Magnum,
languages of today: Java, C# .Net or Cobol (other
Janssen and his staff members have been working
for all sorts of analyses. If something is wrong with
Assembler and Powerhouse. The tools can also support
target languages are of course possible too). A project
on them since 1992. Before launching Cornerstone
a particular system, G4/Analyzer can provide an
15 databases and a whole array of hardware platforms.
that would otherwise require 1200 man-years of
Technology, Janssen was in charge of developing four
overview of the most complex relationships and
ERP systems for a range of large businesses and
thereby visualize every cause-effect process. The results
BI for IT
Cornerstone staff in just six months. That is 2400
organizations, including DAF, Xerox and various
like cross-references, drill-downs, relation matrices,
Cornerstone developed the G4/Dashboard to make
times faster, and at a fraction of the cost. It is all done
hospitals, so he knows a thing or two about it.
flowcharts, treeviews etc can be presented at a large
information fully accessible, so that everyone from the
by ‘robots’ and it is faultless and fully replicable.
“That experience sparked my vision of automating
number of aggregation levels. Every stakeholder in
CEO/CFO/CIO up to development and computer
IT itself,” he explains. “You can think of programming
the complex application systems process is serviced
production staff can see information relevant to their
Too good to be true? Cornerstone Technology has
components as materials, almost like objects, which
by specific information of the interactive G4/Analyzer
role. “That’s BI for IT,” says Janssen. “So as well as
helped a great many national and international
are positioned in complex applications systems,
tool.
calculating all sorts of metrics for quality, risk,
organizations since it launched 20 years ago. The
Cornerstone
Technology B.V.
programming work can now be performed by two
maintainability and testability, we also work out what’s
website lists some well-known names. Why not see
Archimedesstraat 12
production line. If you have a detailed understanding
“We rarely, if ever, look at existing documentation,
been invested into such a system over the years.
what they have to say?
3316 AB Dordrecht
of those movements of application objects, what you
if there is any,” Janssen stresses. “We look only at a
We often calculate that hundreds of man-years are
Tel. 078-6138433
have is meta-information, or information about
program’s source code and data definitions. The Truth
invested in our clients’ applications. A CFO is likely to
Fax 078-6138410
information. Using that meta-information, you can
Is In The Source. What we’re doing, as it were, is
think three times before signing off on reprogramming.”
[email protected]
document those applications in great detail, detect
putting a thermometer into the core of an application
just like fenders and brake cylinders in a car
Advies Top 100 ICT
www.cornerstone.nl