Overview of the Migration Project
Following detailed technical, cost, and risk assessments, ING decided to manage the modernization internally.
Using SoftwareMining's COBOL-to-Java conversion tools, the bank seamlessly transformed its mainframe COBOL/CICS applications into modern Java code.
Because the system was mission-critical, maintaining identical functionality was essential.
More than 2 billion transactions were processed during
side-by-side testing
to verify that both the COBOL and Java systems produced identical outputs.
This extensive validation phase extended the project to 18 months, but ensured total reliability.
Continuity of the messaging architecture was also crucial.
The translated Java system supported a gradual transition from IBM MQ messaging,
allowing hybrid operation during testing and a smooth future migration to open platforms.
SoftwareMining's libraries enabled these changes without modifying the translated codebase.
Thread safety and concurrency were another major focus.
The Java system underwent intensive parallel transaction testing to confirm that concurrent user sessions did not interfere with one another.
The batch component also required matching performance with the original IBM mainframe.
Using SoftwareMining's JCL-to-Unix shell conversion and Java SORT implementation,
the bank achieved equivalent throughput and maintained nightly batch processing windows.
