COBOL & MAINFRAME ACCELERATOR

Bridge from Mainframe.
Without Standing Still.

Kanetic-x is Kansoft's AI-driven framework for incrementally migrating COBOL, CICS, and DB2 applications to modern cloud-native architectures on Java or .NET — without bet-the-company rewrites or multi-year delivery risk.

Kanetic-x · Live
01

COBOL Codebase Parsed

3.2M LOC · 412 copybooks · 187 JCL flows mapped

02

Service Decomposition Plan

Target: Java Spring Boot · 14 bounded contexts

03

COBOL → Java Transformation

61% auto-migrated · business logic preserved

04

Batch Reconciliation Tests

Golden master parity vs mainframe queued

50%
Faster Modernization
80%
MIPS Cost Reduction
75%
Business Logic Auto-Translated
0
Big-Bang Cutovers
Why Mainframe Migrations Fail

Most mainframe modernization projects either run for a decade, get scrapped halfway, or end as expensive cloud-VM lift-and-shift that solves nothing. Kanetic-x is built for what actually works: strangler-fig migration with continuous parity validation.

The COBOL Skills Crisis

The engineers who built these systems are retiring faster than universities can produce COBOL graduates. Maintenance gets harder every year — and no one will be left to do it.

$1M+ / Month MIPS Costs

Mainframe pricing scales with usage. Modern cloud-native equivalents typically cost 70–90% less for the same workload — but you have to actually finish the migration to capture it.

Tightly-Coupled Batch Jobs

JCL flows orchestrate hundreds of inter-dependent jobs. One nightly cycle. No clean service boundaries. Decomposition without breaking financials is the entire problem.

Data Lock-In

DB2, IMS, VSAM, and sequential datasets carry decades of records. Migrating data while keeping the legacy system live is harder than migrating the code itself.

Compliance Stakes

Banks, insurers, government — mainframes run the most regulated workloads. Behavioural parity isn't a nice-to-have; it's an audit deliverable. Manual rewrites can't prove it.

10-Year Project Risk

Traditional mainframe rewrites overrun budgets, burn through three CTOs, and end up shelved. The risk model has to be incremental — or it doesn't ship.

Traditional Approach vs. Kanetic-x

Three traditional paths exist for mainframe modernization: rewrite (slow, risky), lift-and-shift (cheap, solves nothing), or replatform (somewhere in between). Kanetic-x gives you the rewrite outcome with the lift-and-shift timeline.

Dimension
Traditional Rewrite
Kanetic-x
COBOL Analysis
Manual line-by-line, 12+ months Slow
AST + copybook parsing, weeks Fast
Business Logic Translation
Hand-coded in target language
Pattern-based COBOL → Java/C# with semantic preservation
JCL / Batch Migration
Rebuilt from scratch in modern orchestrator
JCL flows mapped to Apache Airflow or AWS Step Functions
Data Migration
One-shot load with downtime Risky
CDC streaming with continuous reconciliation Zero Downtime
Risk Model
Big-bang cutover after years
Strangler fig — incremental, validated, reversible
Parity Validation
Manual UAT, hope-driven
Automated golden-master testing of millions of records
Timeline
5–10 years Slow
18–36 months 50% Faster
Cost
$50–200M, often shelved
Phased delivery, value within first year
Four Phases. COBOL-Native Throughout.

Each phase is informed by mainframe-specific patterns — copybooks, redefines, working storage, JCL conditional flow — not generic refactoring rules.

1

Discover

Parse COBOL programs, copybooks, JCL, and CICS transactions. Build a complete dependency graph.

COBOL AST + copybook resolution
JCL job-flow + dataset mapping
CICS transaction inventory
DB2 / IMS / VSAM schema audit
2

Design

Identify natural service boundaries from existing JCL flow + business logic clusters.

Bounded-context decomposition
Target stack selection (Java vs .NET)
Modern data-store mapping (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Kafka)
Strangler-fig migration sequence
3

Transform

COBOL logic translated to idiomatic Java or C# — preserving the business intent without inheriting the COBOL idioms.

COBOL → Java/C# pattern conversion
JCL → Airflow / Step Functions
CICS → REST APIs + event handlers
DB2 → PostgreSQL / Aurora migration
4

Validate

Behavioural parity is the audit deliverable. Golden-master testing replays mainframe inputs and reconciles outputs to the cent.

Golden-master test generation
Batch reconciliation reports
Performance vs MIPS baseline
Compliance + audit-trail validation
Every Mainframe Scenario. One Framework.

From OLTP to batch, from green screens to APIs — Kanetic-x covers the full mainframe surface area.

COBOL → .NET 8 / C#

For Microsoft-aligned organisations. Same translation rigor, different target — C# on .NET 8 with full ASP.NET Core API surface.

.NET 8C#Azure

DB2 → PostgreSQL / Aurora

Schema migration, stored procedure conversion, and online CDC-based data replication for zero-downtime cutover.

DB2PostgreSQLAurora

JCL → Modern Orchestration

Batch job networks rewritten as event-driven workflows on Apache Airflow, AWS Step Functions, or Argo Workflows.

AirflowStep FunctionsEvent-Driven

CICS → REST APIs

CICS transactions exposed as modern REST or gRPC services. Green screens replaced with React/Angular UIs over the same business logic.

CICSRESTgRPC

Monolith → Microservices

Decompose a tightly-coupled mainframe monolith into bounded-context microservices. Strangler-fig sequencing keeps the lights on throughout.

Strangler FigDDDEvent-Driven
From 3270 Green Screen to Modern Web Dashboard

A real-world example: a CICS account-inquiry transaction running on a 3270 terminal, transformed into a modern, secure, REST-driven web dashboard.

Before — 3270 Green Screen
CICS ACCT001 ACCOUNT INQUIRY TRAN: ACQ1
================================================================
ACCOUNT NUMBER ......: 000045721
CUSTOMER NAME ......: SMITH JOHN R
ACCOUNT TYPE .......: CHK STATUS: A
CURRENT BALANCE ....: 12,450.78 USD
AVAILABLE BALANCE ..: 12,400.78 USD
LAST TRANSACTION ..: 2024-04-30
BRANCH ............: 041 CHICAGO MAIN
================================================================
PF1=HELP PF3=EXIT PF7=BACK PF8=FWD PF12=CANCEL ENTER=PROCESS

Mainframe-Era Limitations

Tied to 3270 terminal emulators — no web, no mobile
CICS BMS map files coupled to COBOL programs
RACF auth — no OAuth, no SSO with modern identity providers
No API surface — partner integrations via flat files / FTP
Costs scale with MIPS — $1M+/month for typical workload
COBOL skill shortage — workforce retiring out
Kanetic-x
After — Modern Web Dashboard
BankCore Web
Accounts Inquiry 000045721

Account Inquiry — #000045721

Active
Smith, John R.
Checking (CHK)
$12,450.78
$12,400.78
30 Apr 2024
Chicago Main (041)

Cloud-Native by Default

Web + mobile + API — same data, three channels
OAuth 2.0, OIDC, MFA, SSO with corporate identity
REST + gRPC APIs — partner integrations in hours, not months
Java Spring Boot or .NET 8 — talent pool 100× larger
Cloud-elastic — pay for usage, not peak capacity
Full audit trail — every action logged, queryable, exportable
Metrics That Matter

Indicative results from enterprise mainframe migrations delivered through Kanetic-x.

50%
Faster Time-to-Production
18–36 months to first phase live, instead of the 5–10 year traditional cycle.
80%
MIPS Cost Reduction
Cloud-native equivalents typically cost a fraction of mainframe MIPS pricing for the same workload.
75%
Business Logic Auto-Translated
AI handles structured transforms; human reviewers focus on edge cases and concurrency-sensitive paths.
100%
Behavioural Parity
Golden-master replay testing verifies output equivalence to the mainframe — to the cent, to the cycle.
0
Big-Bang Cutovers
Strangler-fig migration. Modules go live one at a time. Rollback always available.
Quarter 1
First Module in Production
Value delivered in the first quarter — not deferred to a far-future cutover date.

Get Your Free
Mainframe Assessment

Share representative COBOL programs, copybooks, and JCL flows. Kanetic-x will produce a phased migration plan — service decomposition, target stack, MIPS savings model, and 18-month roadmap — within 5 business days.