From mainframes to "modernized" Web-based front ends, COBOL applications remain mission-critical for many enterprises. Now those same apps have a future in the cloud, says application management tool maker Micro Focus.
The company demonstrated, at the Professional Developers Conference, a mockup of its Customer Information Control System (CICS) transaction manager running on Microsoft"s Windows Azure service platform. Porting the CICS transaction manager to Azure lets COBOL applications move to the cloud, said Micro Focus" CTO Mark Haynie.
The company served on Microsoft"s cloud service advisory group and began working with the Azure software development kit back when the platform was called Red Dog. Haynie acknowledged that Micro Focus had to overcome a learning curve because Azure is a platform with layers (such as its identity service) that must be invoked to carry out certain operations.