1. Never Say Never: Creatively Leverage Your Legacy
Donovan Follette
Washington State University

2. Overview of WSU Land-grant University (1892)
Carnegie Research I University
21,000 Students
Four Campuses
Multiple Learning Centers
Distance Education Program

3. WSU Campus Locations
Spokane
Pullman
Tri-Cities
Vancouver

4. MVS, CICS, COBOL, Natural, ADABAS
“Business needs drive innovation.” 1 3 2 4 5 6 7
Encrypted Transaction
DCE
(RPC)
Legacy e-volution
Legacy Data Repository
(ADABAS)
Registrar
(Home Grown)
Financial
Aid
Admissions
Administrative Users
(VSAM)
COBOL
CICS Screens (Vendor)
Enterprise Server MVS
WSU InfoNet Server Software
Web Browser
Client Software
Secure
Web
Server
C G I
Authentication
Server (Kerberos)
WSU InfoNet Application Architecture
Natural, COBOL
IBM OS/390 Mainframe
MVS, CICS, COBOL, Natural, ADABAS

5. Building on the Infrastructure
Financial Aid Information
Web Registration
Student Academic Information
Student Accounts
From balances to payments via credit card
Undergraduate/Graduate Pre-admit Status
Student Elections
Address & Telephone Changes
Student Information Center

6. Four Strategies Identify Missing ‘Key’ Technologies
Evaluate Available Skills
Creatively Leverage Your Legacy
Prioritize Projects For Success

7. Strategy 1: Identify Missing ‘Key’ Technologies
If we only had…
Authentication? “Are you who you say you are?”
Authorization? “Are you allowed for this function?”
RPC Access to Legacy Environment?
Inventory in-house software
Consortium/vendor solution
Cash-free may not be possible… but be strategic

8. Strategy 2: Evaluate Available Skills
Identify Required Implementation Skill Sets
Data administration
DBA
Application analyst/specialist
O/S, network infrastructure specialist
Select Key Participants
Visionary, capable, team-oriented
Expert user(s)

9. Strategy 3: Creatively Leverage Your Legacy
Controlled e-volution
Use maintainable/sustainable technologies
Language environments, O/S’s, databases
Adhere to production policies and standards
Practical Examples
One-way data extracts (accessed via .cgi, .asp, etc.)
Relational to flat files FTP’ed to Web server -- Majors List
VSAM to relational database -- Transfer Courses

10. Strategy 3: Creatively Leverage Your Legacy
Practical Examples (cont.)
Leverage in-house technologies
Services
Request collection via Web
Output delivery via (batch processing)
Unused technologies -- Cougar TraCS
Distribute electronic data
Re-think our age-old report distribution model
Supply data for desktop decision support tools

11. Strategy 4: Prioritize Projects For Success
Applying a Bit of Objectivity...
Time estimate - S(1-3m), M(3-9m), L
Impact - S(? admin.), M(advising community), L(student population)
Cost (hardware, software licenses)
Quick Wins — SL or ML

12. Conclusions
Small incremental steps can produce large sustainable returns.
There are ways to move our applications forward in support of
e-services — be creative.

13. For Further Information ...
Donovan (Van) Follette
Creatively Leverage Your Legacy