DWP moves “Job Seeker’s” Mainframe to X86

[MrMobodies]

https://www.cbronline.com/news/dwp-job-seekers-allowance-payment-system

DWP Wraps Up Mammoth “Job Seeker’s” Mainframe to X86 Migration
ED TARGETTEDITO 8TH JUNE 2020

6.3 billion records, 7.2 million lines of code, 29,592 batch processes, 50,000 end users, 54 databases…

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has successfully shifted its Job Seeker’s Allowance Payment System (JSAPS) from its mainframe to an X86 architecture running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux — a mammoth task involving reams of legacy code, some of which was written in the 1960s.

The re-platforming concluded with the final migration of 54 databases containing 6.3 billion records from the original database/s to a “leading modern relational database management system” in under 24 hours

JSAPS (introduced in the late 1990s) was based on an IT code set that had been designed in the 1960s, with code added over the years as new technical and policy requirements changed. It has over 50,000 end users. The replacement system includes 7.2 million lines of code, and 29,592 batch processes.

That’s according to IT firm Advanced, which supported the DWP with the move. The shift has halved how long it takes to process applications, Advanced said: the first full working day of activities on the new system was completed in two hours and 11 minutes as opposed to a previous five hours, allowing the DWP to issue 200,000 individual payments worth over £53 million.

Mark Bell, VME-R Deputy Director at the Department for Work and Pensions said: “This has been widely recognised as one of the best technical achievements delivered by DWP Digital for many years and as ground-breaking against wider industry standards. It also enables us to make further digital enhancements to benefit millions of UK citizens.”

Tim Jones, MD of Application Modernisation, at Advanced told Computer Business Review: “The programme to move DWP’s applications to a new platform is part of a major modernisation initiative to safeguard and improve the systems responsible for a £170 billion of welfare payments per annum.

“The scale, complexity and importance of the project is potentially the largest of its kind to adopt an automated re-platform approach.

To provide an idea of scope of the project…

The Job Seekers Allowance application is the seventh DWP’s application to ‘go live’ as part of a much larger programme of work to decommission its mainframe which started in earnest with Advanced in August 2017.
Each system provides a mission critical service and as such has national ‘critical asset’ status.
C. 25+ Million Lines of Code converted using an automated approach
All code successfully translated to a modern code set and a modern integrated development environment (including a major language translation for critical code)
The migration of 9 billion data rows all converted, loaded and verified
Only three systems currently remain on the mainframe as the programme enters its final phase.
He told us in an emailed answer to several questions: “There have been technical and delivery related challenges but these have been well managed and prepared for. The biggest challenge was to manage a large-scale delivery with multiple ‘swim streams’. Something the department took on themselves and managed magnificently as part of building their own internal capability.

Advanced’s Tim Jones added: “Some particular technical achievements that come during the JSAPS project in particular include:

1) The complex database mapping and use of features such as partitioning and Index Organized Tables which resulted in better online and batch performance than on the original mainframe application. No changes were needed to the converted application code to meet performance targets.

2) Converting untyped data with COBOL computational items and EBCDIC characters into equivalent ASCII data.

3) Full byte-by-byte reconciliation between the original database and the go forward database ensured any database conversion issues were resolved well before cutover completely de-risking the implementation into live.”

Now that the JSAPS re-platforming is complete, the DWP will focus on completing the re-platforming of the last three remaining legacy applications – the State Pension Services, Disability Living Allowance and Income Support, which combined will benefit over 18 million citizens.

Advanced’s £40 million software licencing agreement inked in 2018 with the DWP was its largest contract to-date. The company is the UK’s third largest provider of business software and services with a £254 million annual turnover, 16,000 customers and 2,200 employees.

Interesting, I was told many things like this was done in house decades ago but now they have outsourced it.

[grumpydoc]

Interesting that they seem to have chosen Linux as the platform though...

[dr.diesel]

Interesting that they seem to have chosen Linux as the platform though...

Do you disagree?

Linux is catching up to Unix's 9s count.   

[grumpydoc]

Do you disagree?

Not at all - I just thought UK government IT was still firmly welded to Redmond.

[wilfred]

I'd be assuming the mainframe is IBM Z-series server technology. Which can run Linux. If they are using IBM z-series servers then they are probably also using Z/OS with CICS as transaction server and  DB2 for database and COBOL as the legacy code. But if they're not true blue IBM then there are a number of other options.

The problem with Z/OS on Z-series that is the finite supply of IT skills. No-one fresh out of Uni is going to say I really want to work on Z/OS. It has probably been that way for 20 years. X86 skills are much more readily available.  Software license costs are probably quite a bit less too.

[dr.diesel]

Not at all - I just thought UK government IT was still firmly welded to Redmond.

Thankfully they didn't fall into the Oracle trap! 

[Syntax Error]

Well it's nice to know with a huge influx of unemployed persons, the English Department for Work and Pensions is ready with a 'new system'.

25+ Million Lines of Code converted using an automated approach

Thus turning the existing documentation into another pile of waste paper. So NO-ONE knows how it all works!

1) The complex database mapping and use of features such as partitioning and Index Organized Tables which resulted in better online and batch performance than on the original mainframe application.

Wow, Index Organized Tables. That's lifting the Dbms into the year... 1991

2) Converting untyped data with COBOL computational items and EBCDIC characters into equivalent ASCII data.

Data conversions often future proof with UTF8/16, but at least the DWP can now operate on an Arduino.

3) Full byte-by-byte reconciliation between the original database and the go forward database ensured any database conversion issues were resolved well before cutover completely de-risking the implementation into live.”

This quote is straight off the script of the British sitcom W1A. It's recommend viewing. Now go jump in your swim streams.

[tom66]

Wait, they spent £40 million on this move, and as a result the process still takes 2 hours and 11 minutes?  And a mainframe, presumably commissioned in the 80's, is only half the speed?

[duckduck]

Well, if they kept the same code "translated" then they are dealing with the same locks on the DB and other non-hardware bottlenecks. Also mainframe CPUs weren't that powerful but the IO really kicked ass (for their day). I think that if this project was started from scratch today they would have done things very differently and it would have the opportunity to be much faster.

EDIT:

Also, perhaps the output of their "automated code translation" is not super optimized for the target system. The more they optimize it --> the more they change it --> the more opportunity there is for messing something up.