Micro Focus delivers COBOL support for IBM eServer iSeries.

Micro Focus International Ltd. (Micro Focus) has announced at the IBM eServer iSeries Technical Conference the availability of its Server Express product for IBM eServer iSeries OS/400. This announcement furthers its commitment to delivering Micro Focus COBOL solutions for all IBM eServer platforms. Server Express on iSeries helps customers migrate applications residing on platforms that will no longer be supported by hardware vendors, while retaining core value in COBOL application assets.

By expanding the availability of the Server Express development and deployment environment to the iSeries, Micro Focus is also providing a new alternative for IT organizations looking at lowering the total cost of ownership for their application portfolio. Application providers using Micro Focus COBOL are now enabled to expand their market by having their applications available on IBM eServer iSeries. Customers will benefit from Micro Focus' high-scale performance, portability and the ability to integrate with contemporary technologies like J2EE, XML and Web services, helping them maximize ROI from their existing assets and gain tangible benefits through application reuse.

"As hardware vendors announce the discontinuation of current platforms, organizations are looking at mitigating the risk involved during their migration while future proofing their COBOL application assets," said Tony Hill, chairman and chief executive officer of Micro Focus. "Server Express for the IBM eServer iSeries meets both of these critical business needs."

"We offer a complete legacy application migration toolset that is based on Server Express and for more than 14 years it has enabled many companies to migrate a wide range of business functions, said Charles Finley, president of Transformix Computer Corporation, a leading supplier of HP3000 software migration tools. "Using an early release of Server Express for iSeries, we have confirmed that IBM eServer iSeries is a new target platform we can recommend to our customers."

"Many HP3000 users with significant COBOL investments are migrating to IBM eServer products," said Ian Jarman, IBM eServer iSeries product manager. "iSeries offers a highly integrated and low cost solution for this community, and Server Express is an integral tool for migrating COBOL applications."

Server Express for IBM eServer iSeries is available now. Existing applications compiled with Server Express for any UNIX platform can be made available on OS/400 without source code modification. Companies interested in migrating to iSeries and taking advantage of the new Server Express should visit www.microfocus.com/migration.

Micro Focus is the fastest, most effective way to migrate, extend, develop and deploy enterprise applications. As the industry standard for COBOL, Micro Focus enables organizations to maximize ROI while reducing development costs for accelerated business success. Founded in 1976, Micro Focus is a global company with principal offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Japan. For more information, visit www.microfocus.com.

Micro Focus is a registered trademark and Server Express is a trademark of Micro Focus International Ltd. All other trademarks contained herein are properties of their respective owners. The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the following descriptive term "server" following it. The following are either trademarks or registered of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both: IBM, the IBM e-business logo and iSeries.