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Sunnyvale, August
18, 2004 –
Fujitsu Software Corporation is announcing an Early Release Program
for NeoKicks™ V1.0, the latest enhancement to its mainframe
migration solutions. NeoKicks delivers greatly increased agility
to IT groups with CICS COBOL applications by lowering platform maintenance
costs, giving interfaces new life as ASP.NET Web applications or
Windows Forms client applications, and integrating with Visual Studio
.NET for much higher developer productivity.
“Although the
majority of CICS applications are critical to business operations,
these applications are increasingly being viewed as an expensive
burden, running on costly hardware provided by a single vendor,
with little innovation in maintenance or enhancement options,”
said Ron Langer, senior director languages group, Fujitsu Software
Corporation. “Organizations with tight budgets have needed
a way to reduce the cost of operating these applications but have
had no hope that they could put them back in the mainstream of technical
innovations until now.”
NeoKicks radically changes
this picture by:
- Offering a Windows
server based solution – bringing the applications to hardware
platforms with highly competitive price-performance ratios;
- Migrating the code
to the .NET environment – allowing it to benefit from the
best tools (in Visual Studio .NET) for maintenance and RAD, as
well as placing the latest technologies fully within the reach
of the migrated CICS applications;
- Transforming the
CICS BMS screens into ASP.NET Web pages (Web Forms) or optionally
Windows Forms, freeing the applications from their character screen
straightjacket.
NeoKicks is available
now in a limited membership Early Release Program so that Fujitsu
Software can ensure full customer satisfaction while fine-tuning
the package to support the large numbers of organizations that need
the increased agility it offers. Those interested in finding out
how NeoKicks can revolutionize their CICS legacy should contact
Fujitsu Software immediately to secure a place in the Early Release
Program.
NeoKicks is a pioneer
CICS migration solution that brings CICS code to the .NET environment
and provides standard Web Forms and Windows Forms interfaces. Coupled
with the fact that Fujitsu Software’s NetCOBOL for .NET is
the only COBOL compiler that produces verifiable (memory safe) MSIL
code, the unique features of NeoKicks make it a compelling product
for those dealing with the financial and technological constraints
of mainframe CICS.
The engineers who developed
NeoKicks have years of CICS experience combined with in-depth knowledge
of the .NET Framework based on their relationship with Microsoft
and the Ecma CLI (Ecma International - European association for
standardizing information and communication systems, Common Language
Infrastructure) committee from the early days of .NET developments.
The result is a product that supports CICS functions by taking full
advantage of .NET architectural features, positioning the migrated
applications so that they can take advantage of all that the .NET
environment has to offer, such as scalable architecture and rich
class library.
“The early users
of NeoKicks are attracted by the large savings they see in moving
from mainframes to Windows server environments,” Langer pointed
out. “It’s easy for them to see that the cash they keep
in their budgets will increase their ability to respond to changing
business requirements. Their enthusiasm particularly ramps up when
they also realize that their CICS applications will be fully integrated
into the .NET Framework, able to take advantage of everything that
environment has to offer – giving them easier maintenance,
rapid application development and access to much new technology.”
Basim Kadhim, chief
architect for languages, Fujitsu Software Corporation added, “Delivering
increased agility was a major goal in designing NeoKicks. That’s
why the product integrates tightly with Visual Studio .NET.”
Kadhim’s examples include:
- After using our Wizards
to process CICS COBOL programs and BMS macros, NeoKicks developers
have Visual Studio projects set up for them, ready to go;
- XML is used in the
translation of BMS macros to Windows or Web Forms so that users
can easily customize and configure the way that the user interface
is rendered in the conversion;
- Screens can be modified
and extended using the highly productive Visual Studio Designers;
- Behaviors such as
file transaction handling are supported by plug-in components,
giving users the option to easily integrate features of their
online applications with other technologies.
For more information
please visit www.netcobol.com.
About
Fujitsu Software Corporation
Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is
part of the Fujitsu Limited family. Fujitsu Software Corporation
leverages Fujitsu's international scope and expertise in developing
and providing information technology solutions. Fujitsu Software
Corporation's products include NetCOBOL® and Interstage®,
e-business infrastructure software. NetCOBOL is a COBOL development
environment and suite of tools to build fast, mission-critical business
systems on open platforms, including Microsoft's .NET Framework.
For more information, visit http://www.fsw.fujitsu.com
Copyright
2004 Fujitsu Software Corporation. Fujitsu, the Fujitsu Symbol Mark,
NetCOBOL and Interstage are registered trademarks, and NeoKicks
is a trademark, of Fujitsu Software.
All other registered trademarks, trade names, or service marks mentioned
in this document are the property of their respective owners.
MORE INFORMATION
Fujitsu Software Corporation
Andrew Mackenzie
(408) 746-6323
andrewm@us.fujitsu.com
Marilyn Green
(650) 218-9986
msg2004@comcast.net
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