Risk-Free Porting from .NET to Java EE, Linux

Most small to midsize ISVs favor the high productivity of the Microsoft® Visual Studio® development environment. However, cross platform support for Linux® and other Java™ EE enabled platforms is often a requirement for ISVs to win enterprise customers.
"Using Mainsoft, Serena is able to simultaneously develop and target Microsoft .NET, Linux, and Java EE server platforms. In the past, this would have required costly and time-consuming software porting projects."
John Scumniotales,
VP Products

Using Mainsoft's Enterprise Edition eases these cross-platform challenges by enabling you to rapidly port Microsoft .NET Web and server applications to the Java EE platform, without having to hire more engineers or rewrite your entire code. Whereas a Java or Linux rewrite takes eighteen to twenty-four months on average, Mainsoft will port enterprise applications on a fixed-time, fixed-cost basis to WebSphere®, Tomcat or any Java EE server such as Weblogic or JBoss, typically in 3 to 6 months.

Comtec, Janison, Pacific Edge Software, and Urix are among a growing number of ISVs extending their .NET Web and server applications to Linux and other Java EE-enabled platforms, while dramatically reducing development costs and time-to-market. Applications ported with Mainsoft can be certified under Sun's Java Powered for the Enterprise program.

Single-source code development

John Rymer, Vice President of Application Development & Infrastructure, Forrester Research, cites Mainsoft as the best single source code development option for the .NET and Java/J2EE platforms.
Mainsoft frees developers to add functionalities to the products, rather than spend valuable resources supporting two source code bases. The alternative, rewriting the code from scratch and maintaining dual code bases over the product lifecycle, can easily double R&D costs and cause significant delays in time-to-market.
Single-source code development strategy.

Fixed-time, fixed-cost porting to Java EE, Linux

Over the past decade, Mainsoft's Professional Services team has developed a proven, systematic porting methodology that addresses the most common and most problematic challenges of complex porting projects to deliver applications on time and on budget. Mainsoft ports .NET Web and server applications to Java EE on a fixed-time, fixed-cost basis and offers troubleshooting support for Visual Basic and C# applications running on Java EE servers.
We base cost estimates for porting Java EE projects on our capacity to port 5,000 lines of code per day. This estimation changes depending on the size and complexity of the project.
In partnership with IBM, Mainsoft Professional Services will:
  • Port .NET Web and server applications to run Java EE servers on a fixed-time, fixed-cost basis (5-10 times faster than a rewrite).
  • Provide troubleshooting support for Visual Basic and C# applications running on Java EE platforms.

Mainsoft's porting methodology

We offer a proven 3-step methodology to expedite Java EE porting projects:
Phase 1: Fixed-time, fixed-cost proposal
Mainsoft's cross-platform experts analyze your Windows® application binaries to build a porting project and deliver a fixed-time, fixed-cost proposal, including milestones and resource allocation. In most cases, we don't need source code to complete the analysis, and there is no need for an NDA.
The technical review includes:
  • Scope of the functionality that needs to be ported.
  • Dependency analysis of application modules including third-party components.
  • Identification of porting challenges.
  • Application testing requirements.
Phase 2: Code porting
We next request the .NET application source code, including the test suite, and we set up a reference Windows build of the application to be ported together with the test suite. We then validate that the test suite passes on Windows.
Our cross-platform experts will port the test suite as well as the application, while documenting any changes to the original code made to address inherent platform semantic gaps and integration with third-party components. Finally, we validate the test suite on the Java EE server of your choice and deliver the ported application, which now compiles, builds, runs, and passes the test suite on the Java EE platform the same way it does it on Windows.
Phase 3: Set up single source code development environment
Finally, Mainsoft will provide training and education with the handover of the final application so your developers can maintain .NET and Java EE applications using a single source code.