Equifax Improves IT Economies of Scale with UniKix Mainframe Rehosting Software from Clerity

Chicago, IL – March 9, 2009 – Clerity Solutions, Inc. (Clerity), a full-service provider of mainframe migration and modernization solutions, announced today that Equifax (NYSE: EFX), a global leader in information solutions, utilizes UniKix rehosting software from Clerity to offload daily application processing cycles from an IBM System z mainframe to IBM System p servers. With UniKix rehosting software, Equifax has capped variable mainframe processing charges on a key credit scoring application and positioned its organization to address future workload requirements.

“It was critical to implement a solution that would allow processes to continue on the mainframe while improving our cost-per-transaction rates,” said Andy Cooper, Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure and Operations at Equifax. “The strong compatibility between UniKix and mainframe technology allows us to maintain a single source code base for both platforms and offload variable processing cycles with no impact on developers or end users.”

Daily transaction volumes on Equifax's Risk Navigator credit scoring application ranged from 500 to 1,100 MIPS and further workload growth was expected through continued market expansion. To deliver predictable cost-per-transaction rates and avoid a costly upgrade, Equifax decided to offload a majority of the application's daily batch processing cycles from a variable cost mainframe to a fixed cost, horizontally scalable open systems platform.

Leveraging UniKix rehosting technology and services from Clerity, Equifax established a parallel processing environment and automated procedure to offload mainframe compute cycles. UniKix software enables custom CICS, IMS, IDMS, COBOL, batch, VSAM, and related mainframe workloads to run natively on cost effective open systems. With UniKix Batch Processing Environment (UniKix BPE) software, Equifax replicated its Risk Navigator environment -- including JCL, procedures, parameters, and data -- on open systems without impacting ongoing operations or program code.

Under the automated control of Tivoli Workload Scheduler, daily batch jobs and data are now transferred from the mainframe to the distributed environment, dynamically translated, executed, and the resulting output files returned to the mainframe for post processing without disruption.

“We were pleased to support Equifax with its business-critical offloading project,” said Cameron Jenkins, Chief Operating Officer of Clerity. “Clerity's comprehensive solution approach and proven UniKix rehosting technology uniquely enables customers to reduce cost, minimize risk, and realize the full potential of their existing IT investments.”