Keyhole Software led a large-scale modernization initiative for Kansas City Southern Lines Railway, migrating several million lines of legacy COBOL code to a modern, scalable .NET Core architecture. The project emphasized the implementation of microservices and cloud technologies to ensure long-term success and scalability.
Keyhole’s team played a critical role in the success of the first two phases, focusing on strategic planning and implementing a structured blueprint that guided an offshore team through the later stages of the project.
Client Challenge
Kansas City Southern’s flagship product is used to manage the movement, financials, and mechanics of all Kansas City Southern trains. It was built on legacy technologies such as Visual Basic 6. The need for modernization was crucial to maintain competitiveness, enhance system performance, and ensure a more flexible and scalable platform. This transformation aimed to convert the aging system into a modern, microservices-based architecture.
Keyhole’s Solution
Blueprint and Microservices Design
Keyhole Software designed a robust microservices architecture, ensuring that services could be deployed both on-premise and in Azure. The team created a comprehensive blueprint and templated how each service should be built. This allowed offshore developers, with limited knowledge of C#, to quickly implement .NET services following the detailed templates.
Offshore Collaboration
To reduce costs, KC Southern leveraged its offshore partner for the final stages of the migration. Keyhole’s structured templates enabled the offshore team to efficiently extract services from the existing COBOL structure, reducing migration time to just minutes per service. The templates included clear directives on how the new microservices should be created, ensuring consistency and scalability.
Technologies Used:
- .NET Core for modern application architecture
- C# for developing the microservices
- Angular for frontend development
- Web API for building out the API layer
- DB2 for database management
- Azure for cloud hosting and scalability
Role of Keyhole’s Technical Lead & Application Architect/Developer:
A Keyhole Senior Consultant played a pivotal role as the Technical Lead and Application Architect/Developer. He was responsible for designing and implementing the foundational architecture and ensuring the alignment of offshore development teams with the overall technical vision. His leadership helped steer the project through complex phases, ensuring the on-time and successful delivery of the first two implementation stages.
Project Results
- Successful migration of millions of lines of COBOL code to a modern .NET Core architecture.
- Implementation of a microservices architecture that allowed for faster deployment and improved scalability.
- Offshore team seamlessly transitioned to .NET development, thanks to clear and detailed templates.
- Improved performance and maintainability, with cloud-based scalability and flexibility.
Project Success and Ongoing Partnership
Due to the exceptional quality of work delivered by Keyhole Software, the contracts of our team were extended beyond the initial phases of the project. Keyhole’s strategic planning, expertise in microservices architecture, and seamless collaboration with the offshore team ensured that the project was well-positioned for the next phase of development.
Keyhole not only provided immediate value during the first two phases but also set up the foundation for the next stage of the project by teeing up the architecture and development processes for future success. This solid groundwork allowed KC Southern to continue their modernization efforts with confidence and efficiency.
As a result of our successful engagement, KC Southern has chosen to work with Keyhole Software on a subsequent project, becoming a repeat client. Our ongoing partnership is a testament to the trust and value we’ve established, and we look forward to continuing to support KC Southern.
Looking to Modernize Your Legacy Systems?
Keyhole Software has extensive experience in helping businesses modernize legacy systems, implementing microservices, and moving to cloud-based infrastructures. Get in touch today to see how we can help accelerate your transformation.
