A major U.S. health insurer just shut down its third mainframe — this time archiving 153+ TB of claims history spanning seven source formats, from DB2 z/OS to decades-old tape and GDG files. See how a single successful retirement grew into the insurer’s go-to platform for every application retirement that followed.
What’s inside
- How Solix decoded complex multi-layout mainframe records — translating EBCDIC-to-ASCII and COBOL data types across DB2 z/OS, IMS, VSAM, QSAM, and PDS
- The approach to unifying seven distinct structured and unstructured source formats, including tape and GDG archives, into one governed archive
- How hundreds of business users got self-service access to historical claims data — and why one called it “easier to access data than the original application”
- What it took to hit a fixed mainframe shutdown deadline with zero room for slippage, while keeping PII and claims data secured
- Why the insurer’s executive leadership and lead architects now route every application retirement — active or fully decommissioned — to Solix CDP by default
Why it matters
Retiring one legacy mainframe is hard. Retiring three — each with its own data formats, compliance requirements, and business users who depend on the archived history for claims re-adjudication — is what builds real trust. This case study shows how that trust took shape: an ongoing modernization program now reviewed monthly with the insurer’s senior management, saving millions of dollars every time another legacy system goes dark.
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