Client
A leading employee benefits company based in the United States, providing comprehensive benefits solutions to enterprises, sought to modernize its IT infrastructure to improve agility and reduce costs.
Challenge
Legacy Mainframe Modernization and Cloud Cost Optimization Needs
The client was operating on legacy mainframe applications that posed significant challenges:
- High maintenance costs and process inefficiencies associated with aging systems.
- An imminent and expensive five-year contract renewal for mainframe hardware and software that needed to be avoided.
- A pressing need to adopt a cloud operating model to remain competitive amid digital disruption.
- The requirement for a holistic legacy application migration roadmap that could deliver sustainable ROI and leverage automation for scalable cloud adoption.
- Ensuring business continuity with no disruption during modernization.
These challenges made legacy mainframe modernization imperative for the client to achieve cloud cost optimization and operational agility.
Solution
Application Replatforming and Azure Cloud Migration Strategy
Hexaware partnered with the client to design and execute a comprehensive replatforming approach to the Azure cloud that emphasized minimal disruption and maximum reuse:
- Legacy Application Replatforming:7% of the existing mainframe codebase was assessed as compatible for re-hosting with little to no code changes.
- Single-Phase Conversion: Migration was planned and executed in a single phase, beginning with smoke testing and architectural validation.
- Database Migration: The DB2 databases were migrated to SQL Server, while VSAM and sequential files were retained to streamline data handling.
- Workflow Orchestration: Legacy CA-7 job scheduling was replaced with Control-M, simplifying workflows.
- Cloud Infrastructure: The solution leveraged Azure’s high availability with multiple production and non-production virtual machines and SQL databases.
- People and Process: The existing application and operations teams were retained and upskilled, with processes adapted for agile releases, enhanced testing, and deployment cycles.
- Automation and Testing: Migration tools and best practices ensured thorough data validation and minimized risk.
This approach ensured a smooth legacy application migration to Azure that aligned with the client’s cloud operating model goals.
Benefits
Accelerated Modernization and Sustainable Cloud Cost Savings
The legacy mainframe modernization and replatforming to Azure cloud delivered measurable value across cost, performance, and agility.
- Significant Cost Savings: Annual run costs dropped from $2.8 million on-premises to $1.2 million on Azure, an approximately 57% reduction.
- Avoided Contract Renewal: The expensive upcoming mainframe hardware and software contract renewal was successfully averted.
- Accelerated Modernization Timeline: 12 million lines of code were replatformed within 16 months.
- Modern Development Environment: Developers gained access to modern IDEs and development/test environments, improving efficiency.
- Flexible Database Support: The migration to SQL Server provided a low-cost, flexible database solution supporting both OLTP and OLAP workloads.
- Future-Ready Platform: The solution enabled support for containerization, orchestration, and integration with next-generation user interfaces and analytics tools such as Power BI, Tableau, and Azure Data Factory.
- Business Continuity: Migration was completed with zero disruption to business operations.
Summary
Future-ready IT Transformation through Legacy Application Migration
This case highlights how strategic legacy mainframe modernization, combined with a well-orchestrated Azure cloud migration, can deliver significant cloud cost optimization, operational agility, and future scalability. By partnering with Hexaware and adopting a comprehensive replatforming approach, the employee benefits company successfully transformed its legacy IT footprint into a modern, efficient cloud-based platform—positioning itself for continued innovation and competitive advantage in the digital age.
Discover how legacy mainframe modernization and Azure cloud migration can transform your business. Explore our Cloud Services to start your cloud cost optimization journey and accelerate application replatforming.
