Hemel Hempstead, UK, 28 March 2012 – Bull has today launched LiberTP, a software solution designed to rapidly modernise corporate legacy applications. A next-generation transaction processing monitor, LiberTP enables enterprises to easily port their transaction processing applications to an open environment, giving themselves room to manoeuvre - both technically and financially - when it comes to developing new projects. Designed as part of the Le Cloud by Bull approach, Bull LiberTP enables enterprises to prepare their legacy applications for a gradual transition towards Cloud infrastructures.

Room to manoeuvre for legacy applications
Bull LiberTP safeguards legacy applications and frees them from the shackles of traditional transaction processing infrastructures. Today, many enterprises still base their critical activities on Unix applications written in COBOL and C, to which they have been adding value for years. However, these applications are dependent on client/server technologies that are often complex and costly.

With the Bull LiberTP software, over the space of just a few months, IT departments can port their Unix-based COBOL and C applications to a modern application platform built on Java Enterprise Edition. The porting process preserves application performance, data and business logic.

After the application has been ported, the enterprise keeps running its COBOL and C code – but on a new open and secure environment. And it can develop additional modules in the Java language. By offering enterprises more room for manoeuvre, Bull LiberTP enables them to quickly create new services, thereby improving their operational performance.

“IT managers face new challenges created by mobile computing and the Cloud. As a result, they need to adapt their application infrastructure securely and cost-effectively,” says Jean-François Bauduin, Innovative High-End Servers VP at Bull. “We designed Bull LiberTP with the aim of creating more room for manoeuvre. To achieve this, Bull’s know-how in critical systems design was applied to Java environments.”

A new application platform for the extended enterprise and the Cloud
Bull LiberTP can make corporate transaction processing applications accessible via any mobile device, tablet or smartphone. It effectively meets the needs of transaction processing in a Cloud infrastructure, while ensuring application scalability and high availability.

With Bull LiberTP, transaction processing applications benefit from industry standards and can interoperate more successfully with Java ecosystems, which means they are compatible with a large number of Java-accessible tools via Web services.

“The new business opportunities enabled by technology trends such as cloud, mobile, social networking and Big Data are pushing organisations to rapidly kick-off a cycle of drastic modernisation of their application portfolio,” said Massimo Pezzini, Gartner VP and Research Fellow. “The ability to rapidly adapt established business critical systems to these new realities, while reducing their cost of operations, will prove crucial for enterprises’ chances of long term success.”

Bull LiberTP is designed to support customers in porting their applications to a virtualised environment, building on Bull’s partnership with VMware. Applications using Bull LiberTP will have the option to be hosted on Bull’s own virtualised data centre resources, further reducing administrative overheads.

Rapid return on investment
Built on a Java Enterprise Edition architecture and benefiting from a simplified subscription model, Bull LiberTP enables organisations to drastically reduce their total cost of ownership for both operations and development.

Bull LiberTP greatly simplifies the administration of COBOL and C applications, as IT departments no longer need to maintain heterogeneous environments. They can easily recruit Java-trained engineers, which makes IT operations future-proof at a reduced cost. And applications can now use PostgreSQL as their database.

Keeping modernisation simple
Alongside the Bull LiberTP software, the Group is offering a turn-key service to update XATMI transaction processing applications written in COBOL and C; preserving all data, business logic and performance. Bull LiberTP enables the rapid porting of both the client and server elements of Unix-based transaction processing applications.

Building on its extensive expertise, Bull has designed a powerful and secure framework that ensures the continuity of critical applications and enriches them with new features. Legacy applications benefit from the robustness of an enterprise transaction processing system, while opening themselves up to virtualised environments and mobile devices.

Transaction processing applications can be ported in just a few months, using a managed and secure process. Operational continuity of service is guaranteed, even if millions of lines of code are involved. Bull LiberTP includes an environment enabling installation, configuration, server generation and the deployment of new services; greatly simplifying the implementation of the solution.

Availability
Bull LiberTP is available now on Red Hat Linux and IBM AIX, with Oracle Database and PostgreSQL. Usage rights and support are licensed as a subscription.