Unisys, Oracle home in on Linux conversions

Unisys will announce on Tuesday an expansion of its relationship with Oracle to move mainframe and Unix deployments over to Linux and SOA.

Unisys and Oracle have partnered before, but the new arrangement features joint engineering, sales, and marketing activities to boost system migrations.

Featured in the expanded arrangement are specific blueprints that demonstrate how to redeploy applications. For example, the companies have been building a blueprint, or "proof point," on moving from an IBM CICS environment onto Linux running Oracle Fusion middleware and the Oracle 10g database on Unisys ES 7000/one Enterprise Servers.

These servers are powered by Intel-based multi-core processors. Also in this particular mix would be Micro Focus MTO (mainframe transaction option) software for CICS compatibility.

The blueprints are horizontal and not industry-specific. Critical to the arrangement is use of the Unisys 3D-VE (3D Visible Enterprise) methodology, which features a knowledge-mining and abstraction service. Through the extraction of business rules and policies, users gain a better understanding of their applications.

"One of the key areas that's different about our approach compared to some of the others is our story is not just advocating moving the applications over from one platform to another. What we've seen from customers is a desire to understand what the applications do in the first place," said Ali Shadman, Unisys vice president and general manager of open-source solutions, systems, and technology.

Through 3D-VE, users can see the impacts of applications changes at the technology and business layers more clearly, Shadman said.

The bulk of Unisys's alliance with Oracle will be geared toward moving z/OS and MVS mainframes over Linux. But the company has seen instances of users moving over very large Unix systems, said Shadman.

Unisys can move over applications without rewriting code in some instances. Code conversions can be done manually or automatically. There are tools, for example, to convert over Addabas code.

Other Oracle products featured in the alliance with Unisys include Oracle applications and the Oracle Enterprise Manager tool for application management as well as Oracle On-Demand outsourcing services.