From Gartner Inc.'s Application Development Summit, the Mainframe Migration Alliance (MMA) today announced the expansion of the alliance with new members and the launch of the organization's community Web site aimed at sharing best practices and providing resources to customers migrating their mainframe environments to the Microsoft® Windows Server (TM) platform.

The MMA, formed in April 2004, is a community of software vendors and service providers focused on enabling mainframe customers to overcome the challenges posed by owning and maintaining legacy application environments, such as the pressures associated with the need to reduce IT costs, the eroding pool of internal programming and management skills, a shrinking pool of industry resources and investment, and the need for greater flexibility in information technology (IT) systems. New members including Covansys Corp., Fujitsu Software Corp., Getronics NV, Information Analysis Inc. (IAI), M2O Ltd., Modis Inc., MSS International, NetManage Inc., ObjectStar International Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Infotech Ltd. and Transoft join existing alliance members CGI Group Inc., Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., EDS, Fujitsu Consulting, Micro Focus International Ltd., Microsoft Corp., Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Sonata Software Ltd. and Sophisticated Business Systems Inc.

"The switch from a mainframe to the Windows® platform enabled us to save 50 percent of our operational IT costs accompanied by an ROI of less than 20 months," said Manfred Zillinger, chief development officer of Bertelsmann's software development center. "Besides that, we expect to achieve a dramatic rise in productivity due to enhanced capabilities and increased efficiency based on the more agile platform. Windows will ensure the stable, reliable and well-performing technology we need to meet the upcoming, demanding needs of the business."