What is Code Freeze?

You might wonder what happens with business applications during a complex mainframe migration project. Will there be a significant code freeze needed?

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This is a very important question, because hardly any organization can afford to put their core business applications on hold for more than a month.

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The good news is there is no need for a long code freeze. Not in highly automated projects, such as the ones where Anubex's tools are being used. The amount of time a code freeze is needed is usually around three weeks, just before going live.

This is achievable when two conditions are met:

1. The migration process is entirely automated
2. Snapshots are taken at the start of every new phase during the project

Let’s have a look at the automation first: the code transformation is 100% automated, as well as the testing: both versions of the code – the original and the transformed one – are compared automatically. The differences are analyzed and based on that, the tools are improved. A new round of transformation and testing is undertaken, again and again, until the result is correct 100%.

Secondly: at the start of every phase of the project a new snapshot is taken to stay current with the production copy and migrate the latest version of the code.  

At Anubex, combining these two factors – automation and snapshots – helps us to:

• limit the code freeze during a project
• make sure the risks are extremely well managed
• assure business continuity

Would you like to know more about the benefits of automated application modernization? Contact us or request the Migratonomy research paper here.

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