ArtinSoft, a provider of automated software transformation technology, and Gizmox, a developer of Visual WebGui rich internet, Cloud and SaaS application development platform, have joined forces to provide migration services for upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 applications to DHTML, Silverlight 3, and the Windows Azure platform.

The companies said that the new offering will allow users to migrate from current Visual Basic 6.0 or Microsoft Windows Forms applications to a web-based environment, saving deployment, remote access licenses, and infrastructure costs, while at the same time provides the choice between DHTML, Silverlight, or cloud-based user interfaces. It also allows users to keep the user interface normally associated with desktop applications.

ArtinSoft’s Visual Basic Upgrade Companion will be used to transform the VB 6.0 legacy code into .NET code that will run on the Visual WebGui platform. Once in .NET, the application can be ported to the web using Visual WebGui platform developed by Gizmox.

Steve Sklepowich, director for Silverlight at Microsoft, said: Microsoft is pleased to support the new partnership between ArtinSoft and Gizmox. This partnership will equip developers and businesses with the tools they need to cost-effectively move their Visual Basic 6.0 and Windows Forms applications to Silverlight 3, enabling a new class of rich internet applications on the web.

Roberto Leiton, CEO of ArtinSoft, said: This is a great opportunity for enterprise customers to move their application away from the desktop and make them available without deployment limitations. It is something the market has been requesting for a while, and the combination of the Visual WebGui platform with our migration expertise is the best value proposition for our customers.