ASNA Unveils Monarch Technology to Blaze Unique Path for IBM Midrange Systems to .NET Platform; Enterprises Can Leverage Data, Apps, Processes, Programmer Skills.

SAN ANTONIO -- ASNA, a developer of innovative software products that evolve IBM AS/400(R) and iSeries(R)/i5(R) systems - today announced ASNA Monarch(TM), a set of unique technologies that allow individually paced, standards-based extension or total migration of legacy IBM midrange computer operations to .NET, the next-generation Microsoft(R) software platform.

ASNA Monarch is the only product enabling an enterprise to comprehensively evaluate its legacy applications and data, prepare a project roadmap, and then execute staged modernization or complete migration to .NET. Together with ASNA Visual RPG for .NET(TM) (AVR) and DataGate(TM) products, ASNA Monarch offers a low-risk, thoroughly conceived solution for thousands of enterprises worldwide.

"Businesses have tremendous financial, technical, business process and skill set investments in their IBM midrange systems and face critical decisions on how to extend or migrate these resources to a modern platform," said Anne Ferguson, ASNA president and co-founder. "For the first time, ASNA Monarch provides businesses that have chosen .NET with an intelligent way to evolve their legacy systems to Web services and service-oriented architectures.

"Through ASNA Monarch, enterprises can use automated analysis, planning and migration technologies to move at their own pace and to whatever degree mandated by individual business strategies," Ms. Ferguson added. "At the same time, it optimizes the use of current resources, including applications, data, business processes and programming skills."

ASNA Monarch provides automated visual analysis capabilities so users can isolate and examine legacy applications and then plot a roadmap for extending some or all applications and data to .NET, while simultaneously identifying unsupported features that require further resolution. Then, migration agents within Monarch translate the selected codes into a format that can be compiled by AVR into 100-percent-compliant MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language).

The company's DataGate product then provides communications among various platforms, respecting all legacy security protocols.

ASNA estimates that projects which would take years of programmer-hours to complete under currently available methodologies now can be accomplished at low-risk in a matter of weeks using ASNA Monarch.

"Midrange customers are looking for alternatives to IBM's forced migration plan that devalues both their skills and software investments," said Sanjay Parthasarathy, vice president, developer and platform evangelism, Microsoft Corp. "ASNA's ability to preserve existing investments and skills and bring those to the more flexible and cost-effective world of Microsoft .NET will be of great value to midrange customers."

According to a recent Forrester Research survey of U.S. corporate information technology departments, a majority (56 percent) says they will do most of their future technology development on the Microsoft platform.

"Covansys specializes in helping clients with business and technology optimization through legacy modernization, which aligns well with the ASNA strategy," said K. Subrahmaniam, president and chief executive officer, Covansys India and Asia Pacific. "The use of ASNA Monarch will benefit clients by enabling the rapid deployment of .NET-based applications and help them look beyond legacy investments in a more cost effective way."

"I firmly believe the environment of choice is .NET, and the tool to migrate those legacy applications into .NET is ASNA Monarch," said Brian Bunney, director of the .NET division at Packaged Business Solutions Inc. in Concord, Calif. "The ASNA Monarch migration tool has a very intuitive user interface. It allows you to easily and effectively interrogate iSeries applications so that you can select either a portion of an application or the whole application to migrate to .NET."

Monarch is available immediately via the ASNA direct sales channel or its international network of authorized distributors.

About ASNA

Established in 1982, San Antonio-based ASNA (Amalgamated Software of North America), develops and markets unique software products that evolve IBM AS/400 and iSeries/i5 systems. Aligned with Microsoft's .NET initiative, ASNA is the only company to offer a thoroughly conceived, standards-based extension and migration path that solves its customers' business challenges. For more information about ASNA: http://www.asna.com/

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