The U.S. Air Force aims to modernize legacy systems built on COBOL and other legacy coding languages in the mid 1980’s to early 1990’s, with the intention of converting the code and moving the system into a cloud environment, according to a request for information (RFI) released by the service branch.
The RFI, released Dec. 16, centers on the Air Force Foreign Military Sales component and its two legacy systems – the Case Management Control System (CMCS) and the Security Assistance Management Information System (SAMIS). CMCS supports financial and logistical tracking of case files for sales, and SAMIS acts as the procurement system for requests from foreign partners.
Both of these systems are stored in pre-relational database systems, have between 575 to 875 active users, and have at least 1.5 million lines of code that the Air Force aims to modernize. COBOL, FOCUS, NATURAL, and ADABAS are among the languages that need to be converted.
Air Force is keeping an eye towards the cloud for these systems, with the RFI asking potential vendors to share any experience they have with migrating modernized systems and the associated case data.
“Systems must be modernized and migrated to an affordable open system and hosting environment, no down-time, and no loss of data, functionality, or performance loss, and with minimal mission risk,” the RFI states.
Responses are due by January 29, 2021.