For the past decade, Datatek has used its extensive knowledge of Data General products and Open System environments to help Data General sites find and implement solutions that improve their IT systems. In some cases, Datatek provided support for users that wanted to remain on Data General platforms. In other cases, the chosen approach was to migrate their applications, whether on AOS/VS or DG/UX (88K and Intel), to a more widely-supported Open System. Regardless of the choice, Datatek was able to provide successful solutions because of its in-depth Data General experience.

Prior to working at Datatek, almost all of Datatek's technical staff were Data General employees working on Data General products, thereby giving them a comprehensive knowledge of Data General's operating systems and programming languages. They were instrumental in the development and qualification of many Data General products, including DG's relational database (DG/SQL), DG's hierarchical database (INFOS), DG's office automation application (CEO), and the DG/UX operating system. (The sidebar titled DG Products lists some of the products developed/supported by Datatek staff while still Data General employees.) Once Datatek was formed, Datatek served as Data General's outsourcing partner for DG/SQL, TPMS, and DBMS for five years.

Datatek's experience with Data General systems and products led to a steady migration business as companies became concerned with the risks associated with running their applications on an outdated proprietary platform that had a steadily dwindling customer base and was rapidly losing support from Data General. The nature of these migrations required Datatek to become very familiar with client-code in a short period of time.

Additionally, Datatek began to develop and maintain products for Open Systems that were compatible with Data General products, allowing companies to retain their investments by circumventing the need for the mass retraining effort that often accompanies a move from a proprietary system. For INFOS users, Datatek developed the Transaction Based Access Method (TBAM) database manager for UNIX, which supported the full INFOS API, as well as important new features, such as transactions and hands-off recovery. For DG/SQL users, Datatek ported the current product to UNIX (now known as Datatek/SQL), which created an easy migration path for existing DG/SQL users, as well as a future path to the relational model for TBAM users. Also, Datatek developed Intuitive Office to meet office automation needs, which is virtually keystroke compatible with Data General's CEO. Other products developed to make the DG migration easier include a batch/print queue manager (Datatek/QM), a full-featured sort product (TBAM-Sort), a binary file viewer (Datatek Browse), a bisync interface controller (Datatek/RJE), an async terminal controller (Datatek/TM), an automated SQL loader (Datatek/SQL-Loader), an open system label tape manager (Datatek/Label), and a text editor (SAID). All of these products were developed to make the DG migration easier.

As its migration business matured, Datatek developed expertise in language conversion since Data General migrations often required language conversions, even when the language was the same on both source and target platforms. For example, COBOL tends to be available on both legacy/proprietary and Open System platforms, yet they are not completely compatible. For instance, Data General implemented their own versions of coding standards and added functionality to facilitate hardware and software integration, making it impossible, in most cases, to pick up and move the COBOL to a new system. Issues with syntax, compiler functionality, operating system specific features such as system calls/intrinsics, data access via proprietary data managers, etc. must all be addressed, which requires that all of the code be scanned and adjusted in order to work properly in the new environment.

Datatek is undeniably an industry expert in Data General migrations. This proficiency in understanding the framework and subtleties of client code and Data General technologies, coupled with solid experience in Open Systems, makes Datatek the obvious choice for helping companies find and implement solutions for their Data General environment.