“We are getting off IMS”
I have had many discussions lately with IMS companies that end with that statement. In fact, you can substitute “IMS” with “mainframe” in that sentence too. Too often companies think that to modernize means they need to scrap what they have and move to a new platform. No new functions, no new business value; just move to a different platform and all your issues will go away. Most of these IMS systems have been running fault free, day in day out for decades, and will continue to do so. Companies forget that to actually move off of IMS there would be huge costs (programming, analysis, testing, and acceptance from users) and the effort would take years, to only give the company a new platform and no added value to the bottom line. Several questions should be asked the next time they say — “we are moving off IMS”; Why? What new functions are we implementing that address the user’s or business’s needs? How will the new system add to the bottom line? Maybe the consultants that suggested it are looking at a multi-year billable deal and not looking at functionality. IMS has been around for 40+ years and will continue to function. Maybe the real question should be to ask the users; what other information, what other processes and data do you need to provide? Then look at ways to provide those needed assets and functions by reusing what is already in place with state of the art integration technologies such as web services.
