Informix migration to Oracle and COBOL re-platforming

The client Sixt AG is the leading mobility service provider in Europe, available to customers at 3,500 service stations worldwide. FreeSoft as the prime contractor provided automated solutions for database and application migration and for bi-directional database synchronization in the project aiming to migrate the legacy database and the 4 million lines of code COBOL application from Informix to Oracle.

The Project

The goal of the project was to eliminate bottlenecks and performance issues with the company’s business-critical applications due to a non-scalable data infrastructure. The solution to this main issue was the transition to a new database infrastructure, and the migration of two core applications on multiple servers with 4 million code lines in three languages, 800 gigabytes of database volume, 1,200 tables, and numerous application servers. The final infrastructure optimized system availability so that Sixt can process vehicle queries and rentals 24 hours a day.

Solution

FreeSoft used its LiberatorWorkbench framework to deliver the project. The following products of the toolkit were used:

• KnowledgeLiberator for analyzing the Informix schema
• KnowledgeLiberator for analyzing the COBOL application
• KnowledgeLiberator for analyzing the C/C++ application
• DataLiberator for migrating the database schema to Oracle
• DataLiberator for data transformation and load
• CodeLiberator re-platforming the COBOL and C/C++ application to Oracle
• Data Propagator to synchronize data between 30.000 relational tables bi-directionally

Benefits realized by Sixt

• Created a highly scalable, reliable, and stable data infrastructure with Oracle Database and Oracle Real Application Clusters to support Sixt’s 24 hour-a-day vehicle rental business
• Ensured availability of business-critical applications, such as the online reservation system for booking rental cars, with no service interruptions even at peak loads
• Improved database response times by 70% and almost halved the system load after four months, with further performance augmentations in the pipeline
• Optimized scalability of the environment with Oracle Real Application Clusters to support future increases in the demand for rental cars