Migrating to COBOL v6.

3 to Reduce Costs
and Improve Performance

zED Talk – July 16, 2020

Ed Steele – IBM Certified IT Specialist
Zvi I. Weiss – Certified IT Specialist
ed.steele@us.ibm.com
zviw@us.ibm.com
Agenda
• Why stay current with Compilers?
• Z hardware roadmap for COBOL workload

• Enterprise COBOL v6.3

• Migration considerations
• Performance improvements with z15
• New programming features for application modernization

• Automatic Binary Optimizer v2.1 (ABO)

• Latest support for z15
• New Licensing terms

• Q&A
Performance on modern IBM Z hardware is delivered via a
combination of hardware features and compiler support
Enterprise COBOL v5 and going forward
Introduced major infrastructure changes
What’s different about COBOL v6?

(20x)

(5x to 12x)
What’s different about COBOL v6?
Migrating to COBOL v6 (from v4 and below)
Invalid Data in COBOL v6
COBOL v6 Migration: How did we get here?
COBOL v6 Migration: How did we get here?
Invalid Data in Numeric USAGE DISPLAY data Items
Invalid Data in Numeric USAGE DISPLAY data Items
Invalid Data in Numeric USAGE DISPLAY data Items
Invalid Data in Numeric USAGE DISPLAY data Items
Invalid Data in Numeric USAGE DISPLAY data Items
Data items that are used before being given a value
Data items that are used before being given a value
Data items that are used before being given a value
Best Practices for COBOL V6 Migration
Best Practices for COBOL V6 Migration
Best Practices for COBOL V6 Migration
Registration Page:
https://developer.ibm.com/mainframe/cobol-migration-webinars/
COBOL Migration Assistant
• Provides step-by-step guidance
on migrating to COBOL v6

• Allows users to log migration

progress

• Cloud based – Hosted on

Bluemix
• IBM ID required for free
access

• Visit https://cobol-migration-
assistant.mybluemix.net/
Z14 and Z15
ABO Testing vs Compile/Test
Identifying Top COBOL Modules to Optimize with ABO, or
Recompile with COBOL v6.3
Trials
Resources

• Enterprise COBOL
• IBM Marketplace Page: https://www.ibm.com/products/ibm-cobol
• Documentation: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/611415
• COBOL Migration Assistant: https://cobol-migration-assistant.mybluemix.net

• ABO
• IBM Marketplace Page: https://www.ibm.com/products/automatic-binary-
optimizer-zos
• Documentation: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/597105
• Trial on the Cloud: https://optimizer.ibm.com/login
THANK YOU!