Moving a mainframe application to AWS is not primarily a code-conversion problem. It is a systems-engineering problem. Mainframe to AWS is a practical guide to replatforming business-critical mainframe workloads while preserving the behavior, data integrity, recovery characteristics, and operational controls the business already depends on. Using Rocket Enterprise Server as the target runtime, Alexander Kolterer develops a compatibility-led migration approach that follows the complete journey from discovery and architecture through testing, cutover, operations, and retirement of the source platform. The book covers the engineering problems that make real mainframe migrations difficult: • discovering the behavior of the running system before changing it • rebuilding COBOL applications for the target environment • migrating online transaction processing and CICS-style workloads • converting batch processing into reliable, restartable workflows • preserving files, record layouts, encodings, and shared state • moving relational workloads and building a repeatable data migration factory • handling transactions that cross application and platform boundaries • integrating Java services, messaging, reports, and physical output • designing identity, security, auditability, and operational evidence • engineering recovery across failure domains • validating performance under load and failure • proving business equivalence rather than merely successful execution • planning production cutover and transfer of operational authority • retiring the source only after the target can be safely operated The emphasis throughout is on evidence. A successful compile is not a successful migration. A working component test is not proof that the complete business service behaves correctly. Architecture decisions must be connected to implementation obligations, failure behavior, acceptance criteria, and operational ownership. Written for enterprise architects, mainframe specialists, cloud engineers, application and data owners, security teams, delivery leaders, and operations professionals, Mainframe to AWS provides both the architectural reasoning and the implementation records needed to turn a migration design into an operable production service. If your goal is not merely to move code, but to move a critical system without losing the properties that made it dependable, this book shows how to approach the work.
