DEVOPSdigest

CAST announced the winter release of CAST Imaging, an imaging system for software applications, with significant user experience (UX) enhancements and new features designed to simplify and accelerate processes for engineers who develop, maintain, modernize, complex software applications.

The product now has advanced search and filtering options, enhanced cross-application dependencies mapping, new and enhanced migration Advisors, and an overhauled context menu, all aimed at providing instant access to critical information and insights.

CAST Imaging automatically understands how a software application works and visually maps the tens of thousands of code elements and all their relationships into a living knowledge base of the internal architecture, helping architects and developers quickly find what they need. When visualizing and managing application structures CAST Imaging users can now use advanced filtering options for identifying issues with security, error handling, and performance efficiency.

Additionally, CAST Imaging’s crucial impact analysis capability now enables users to assess consequences of UI and database table changes much more effectively and to narrow the scope of regression tests following application modifications.

"This important update is all about making it easier and faster for engineers to find the answers they need when changing existing applications, whether as part of ongoing maintenance or a massive modernization effort." said CAST Imaging Vice President Luc Perard. "It’s all about enabling them to act faster and with greater confidence as they navigate the internal complexities of the applications."

Building on CAST Imaging’s ability to automatically understand software applications’ mechanics, this update also enhances the visualization of dependencies between applications. Users can now filter cross-application dependencies based on languages, frameworks, and database engines, which is particularly important when refactoring applications for cloud. Manually identifying all breakages in such cross-application dependencies can take months, but now CAST Imaging instantly shows them.

Moreover, the release enriches the suite of Advisors that provide personalized recommendations to help accelerate and de-risk application modernization and cloud migration programs. The mainframe-to-AWS migration Advisor now carries out 50% more checks while a new database migration Advisor now helps users move from brings in a new DB2-to-MySQL migration Advisor, adding to the suite of Advisors providing personalized recommendations to help accelerate and de-risk application modernization and cloud migration programs.