Businesses that are successful today base their IT investments on power and flexibility, and heterogeneous environments are the norm rather than the exception. Organizations can no longer deliver only UNIX-based systems
to customers. The marketplace requires additional offerings. With an increasing demand for PC-based, multi-platform products, enterprises around the world are looking for solutions that can bridge UNIX and
Windows, so they can offer more than a single-platform product and remain competitive. When faced with the decision
to duplicate existing UNIX/Linux applications on
Windows and take advantage of the new Web development model, the options are clear: either perform a complete rewrite, or find a tool that lets you port the application.
Rewriting old applications can take anywhere from months
to years and requires ongoing maintenance of two separate source code bases, which is a major ongoing cost. The second option--porting--should be carefully considered because the price for selecting the wrong tool can be high.
The SituationRecently, a large international consulting organization faced this UNIX/Linux-
to-
Windows challenge. The organization’s product is a UNIX-based system with the front end running on
Windows. Whenever the organization gave a demonstration
to a prospect, it would end up either renting a UNIX system and transporting it, or installing their software on the client's machine. In extreme cases, they would have
to dial up and connect. Additionally, the sales team had
to have the technical skills
to set up the environment, instead of concentrating on selling the product.
The company looked at both rewriting and porting their application so all modules could run on a standalone machine, which the sales team could then install only once on their laptops. This way, when they were on sales calls they could focus on their customers’problem and show them their solution.
Rewriting was ruled out because they would need
to continue
to update both their UNIX and
Windows versions with every new release of their product. As a result, they chose
to port their application to Windows.
The SolutionThe company looked at three porting tools: Microsoft SFU, U/Win, and MKS Toolkit for
Enterprise Developers. In the end, they chose MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers because it offered the flexibility of using both UNIX APIs and
Windows APIs, an important consideration because the application uses Pro*C for its database calls. This option allowed this customer
to have a single code base, which drastically reduces the maintenance overhead.
Another consideration was the comfort of MKS’large user base and professional support. Although the primary objective was
to benefit the sales team, after completing the port with MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, the company realized it had uncovered a host of new business opportunities; it could market its product
to smaller customers who had only
Windows environments.
