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March 30, 2016

Upgrades Aid Access to Legacy Data

The latest release of a No+SQL database management platform adds integration capabilities for legacy COBOL and Btrieve systems designed to allow users to update the data management engine underneath their existing applications.

Noting that a significant number of financial and other users continue to rely on legacy systems based on COBOL and Btrieve transactional database software, database specialist FairCom Corp. of Columbia., MO, unveiled the version 2 release of its c-treeRTG database manager this week at a financial technology conference. The latest version is designed to allow users to more easily access the data stored in legacy COBOL and Btrieve systems without modifying existing code.

FairCom’s database management platform provides simultaneous access to NoSQL and SQL databases. The upgrades unveiled this week are designed to allow legacy applications to be integrated with business intelligence tools like Tableau and Oracle BI. The privately held company’s approach allows legacy data to be accessed via new APIs. It also eliminates data exporting and lengthy batch process by integrating data files with business intelligence systems while leveraging real-time SQL capabilities and transaction interfaces such as Python, the company said.

FairCom said its COBOL edition is designed to help financial and other users preserve their investment in mission-critical COBOL applications while eliminating the need for application migration. The upgrade also is intended to bring COBOL data file management up to enterprise levels via full SQL integration along with real-time replication and automatic recovery.

The upgraded version is also touted as providing an operational database with simultaneous SQL access to COBOL files while eliminating the need to rewrite programs to leverage the relational database.

FairCom said Btrieve users also are looking to unlock data trapped in legacy systems. Users “have lost trust and their applications [have suffered] from technology that is no longer evolving,” FairCom noted in a statement, further asserting that Btrieve users “are a technical audience and want to work with an engineering database vendor.”

Hence, the vendor is betting that Btrieve users will want to upgrade existing systems to access legacy data before migrating to new database platforms. FairCom said its Btrieve package allows users to replace their original database via API mapping that creates a “one-to-one” migration path between Betrieve and c-treeRTG functions.

The approach uses migration tools to convert data, metadata and file schemas while preserves existing applications.

FairCom said its ctreeRTG COBOL edition would be available commercially in mid-April. The commercial release of its BRTV version is scheduled for early May.

The latest version of the database manager integrating access to COBOL and Btrieve data was unveiled at this week’s FinDEVr conference in New York City. The conference focuses on tools, platforms and other technologies for the financial sector.

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