Migrating COBOL batch & CICS off mainframe

Greetings, all. I am new here.

I am a mainframe systems programmer/Unix SA. Our m/f environment is small
and static, and will eventually disappear, but not for a few years at least.
Meanwhile, I'm contemplating the merits of migrating our COBOL/VSE apps,
both batch and CICS/VSE 2.3, to another platform. We also have Win2K3,
Solaris and AIX in our shop.

After a small amount of research, it seems that there are mainly two ways I
can go: Micro Focus or IBM. Does anyone have first-hand experience with a
COBOL mainframe-to-whatever migration? Pros & cons of the IBM and Micro
Focus routes?

Cost is a major factor in this (not yet a) project. Our current m/f
environment is inexpensive to maintain. If it would cost $100,000 to
migrate, I should stop right now. $40K might even be too much... I'm just
at the 'thinking about it stage', so I don't have any ROI numbers at all.

Thanks,
TM

P.S. I notice there are Micro Focus employees on this lists. I welcome your
input, but please don't send any canned sales pitches or ask for my phone
number. I will call you if & when the time is right. As I said, I'm just
thinking about it and my management doesn't even know about it. Thanks
again.

P.P.S. Converting the apps to another language is not an option.


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