Mainframe Modernization
At a glance
- What: the Department of Information Technology's plan to move DMV registration and licensing off a COBOL mainframe (about $3 million a year to rent, two developers able to support it) using AI-assisted code conversion to a cloud stack.
- Where it stands: informational briefing on 2026-10-21; no action. The department says about $2.3 million is already in this year's budget, with a working version in about six months and production in about a year.
- Next: procurement and kickoff; a longer-term Arizona DOT system (about $16 million) remains an option, with state transportation department and other funding sought.
Key points
- A 15-program test conversion took a couple of weeks; roughly 200 programs remain.
- Staff would be reassigned, not added: about nine city staff plus a vendor team of about six.
- Okimoto asked where human verification fits; Cordero asked about backup; the mainframe would stay archival for a year or two because federal agencies still query it.
- Presenter: Director McKee (name as captioned).
Sources
- Committee agenda: https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/agenda/browse/747
- 2026-10-21 - Infrastructure, Transportation & Technology (human-uploaded captions, full meeting)
Discussion time
About 24 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).
| Meeting | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 - Infrastructure, Transportation & Technology | 24 |
Log
- 2026-10-21 - Infrastructure, Transportation & Technology - Department briefed the committee on the AI-assisted migration; Tupola, Okimoto and Cordero asked about staffing, funding, verification and backup.