TESTIMONIAL
"This pioneering migration to Oracle Cloud delivered more than just cost savings—it gave us strategic control over our modernization path. Starting with Heirloom's transpiled Java, our team successfully completed a full refactoring to independent idiomatic code, proving we were not locked into any vendor's approach. We gained the freedom to evolve our systems at an optimal pace, on our terms."
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Exec LeaderRenata Faria
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RoleCEO
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Company
project
overview
Riocard Tecnologia da Informação S.A., Brazil's largest electronic ticketing company processing 6 million daily transactions across Rio de Janeiro's transportation network, faced the challenge of modernizing their legacy mainframe systems without sacrificing strategic control. Their monolithic system—383 COBOL programs totaling 2 million lines of code managing 95TB of Db2 data across 1752 tables—required seamless migration to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure while maintaining the flawless transaction processing that Rio's entire public transit system depends on.
But unlike modernization approaches that exchange mainframe lock-in for cloud vendor lock-in, Riocard chose a path that preserved forward optionality. When 6 million daily passengers depend on your smartcard infrastructure working flawlessly—particularly during peak events like Carnival when transaction volumes surge unpredictably—you don't get a second chance to get it right. Every swipe, every ride, every day—Rio depends on it.
The technical complexity was substantial. Riocard needed to migrate cryptographic keys from mainframe ICSF to dedicated cloud HSM while maintaining PCI compliance, orchestrate bidirectional database synchronization between heterogeneous systems during parallel operation, and navigate SQL dialect differences across 1752 tables—all while satisfying Brazil's stringent data sovereignty requirements. They couldn't afford a "big bang" cutover; progressive migration with instant rollback capability was essential. And throughout the transition, business and government compliance demands continued unabated, requiring Riocard to maintain zero-tolerance uptime while running duplicate infrastructure at dual cost.
Working with Oracle and Heirloom Computing, Riocard achieved an industry first: migrating IBM mainframe applications to Oracle Cloud with Heirloom's replatforming technology. The resulting functionally equivalent Java code maintained operational continuity, ran on standard JVM enabling true platform portability, and preserved Riocard's ability to evolve their architecture independently.
But unlike modernization approaches that exchange mainframe lock-in for cloud vendor lock-in, Riocard chose a path that preserved forward optionality. When 6 million daily passengers depend on your smartcard infrastructure working flawlessly—particularly during peak events like Carnival when transaction volumes surge unpredictably—you don't get a second chance to get it right. Every swipe, every ride, every day—Rio depends on it.
The technical complexity was substantial. Riocard needed to migrate cryptographic keys from mainframe ICSF to dedicated cloud HSM while maintaining PCI compliance, orchestrate bidirectional database synchronization between heterogeneous systems during parallel operation, and navigate SQL dialect differences across 1752 tables—all while satisfying Brazil's stringent data sovereignty requirements. They couldn't afford a "big bang" cutover; progressive migration with instant rollback capability was essential. And throughout the transition, business and government compliance demands continued unabated, requiring Riocard to maintain zero-tolerance uptime while running duplicate infrastructure at dual cost.
Working with Oracle and Heirloom Computing, Riocard achieved an industry first: migrating IBM mainframe applications to Oracle Cloud with Heirloom's replatforming technology. The resulting functionally equivalent Java code maintained operational continuity, ran on standard JVM enabling true platform portability, and preserved Riocard's ability to evolve their architecture independently.
outcomes
The migration delivered transformational results for Brazil's transportation ecosystem, establishing two industry firsts from Heirloom Computing and Riocard IT.
First IBM mainframe to Oracle Cloud: The legacy COBOL batch systems—383 programs spanning 160 interconnected online and satellite systems—were successfully replatformed to Java on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, achieving 54% cost reduction and 69% faster processing on core components while delivering dynamic scalability. Rio's transportation system now handles Carnival peak loads that would have required millions in mainframe upgrades, scaling resources elastically to match actual demand rather than overprovisioning for theoretical capacity. Infrastructure that once required 147 Linux and Windows servers, 146 fiber links, and multiple data centers now operates with cloud-native resilience, maintaining zero-tolerance transaction accuracy for 6 million daily passengers.
First evolution to independent idiomatic Java: Riocard's engineering team identified refactorable patterns in the Heirloom-generated Java code and successfully transformed the entire 2 million line codebase into independent idiomatic Java—proving that forward optionality isn't theoretical but completely achievable. This customer-driven innovation validated the value proposition for Heirloom/X—deterministic automation of the refactoring process that other clients can now achieve at scale in weeks, not months or years. Where many automated conversion platforms generate code that remains semantically tied to mainframe patterns, Riocard demonstrated that Heirloom's architecture enables true platform independence. Oracle featured this migration at Oracle AI World as a showcase implementation—validation from a hyperscaler that could have highlighted any number of mainframe modernizations but chose the approach that preserved customer control.
This groundbreaking achievement positioned Riocard to evolve their systems independently, eliminated vendor lock-in concerns, and established a foundation for continued innovation in serving Rio de Janeiro's transportation ecosystem—demonstrating that strategic control and cloud modernization aren't mutually exclusive.
First IBM mainframe to Oracle Cloud: The legacy COBOL batch systems—383 programs spanning 160 interconnected online and satellite systems—were successfully replatformed to Java on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, achieving 54% cost reduction and 69% faster processing on core components while delivering dynamic scalability. Rio's transportation system now handles Carnival peak loads that would have required millions in mainframe upgrades, scaling resources elastically to match actual demand rather than overprovisioning for theoretical capacity. Infrastructure that once required 147 Linux and Windows servers, 146 fiber links, and multiple data centers now operates with cloud-native resilience, maintaining zero-tolerance transaction accuracy for 6 million daily passengers.
First evolution to independent idiomatic Java: Riocard's engineering team identified refactorable patterns in the Heirloom-generated Java code and successfully transformed the entire 2 million line codebase into independent idiomatic Java—proving that forward optionality isn't theoretical but completely achievable. This customer-driven innovation validated the value proposition for Heirloom/X—deterministic automation of the refactoring process that other clients can now achieve at scale in weeks, not months or years. Where many automated conversion platforms generate code that remains semantically tied to mainframe patterns, Riocard demonstrated that Heirloom's architecture enables true platform independence. Oracle featured this migration at Oracle AI World as a showcase implementation—validation from a hyperscaler that could have highlighted any number of mainframe modernizations but chose the approach that preserved customer control.
This groundbreaking achievement positioned Riocard to evolve their systems independently, eliminated vendor lock-in concerns, and established a foundation for continued innovation in serving Rio de Janeiro's transportation ecosystem—demonstrating that strategic control and cloud modernization aren't mutually exclusive.