While many companies plan to migrate off their mainframe systems “some day,” those systems actually get retired only rarely. In fact, it makes good sense for certain applications to continue to reap the benefits of high availability, stability, and security that the platform provides.
What’s more, the cost of re-implementing the same levels of mainframe performance and scalability are extremely high and it may be difficult to recoup that investment. But regardless of the long-term strategy, it’s important to be aware of some important new technologies for mainframe-intensive environments.
A notable product in that realm is Attachmate Verastream Host Integrator. It encapsulates mainframe data and logic via the screen interface to enable participation in today’s service-oriented architectures.
Verastream transforms legacy applications into SOA assets by exposing business processes as web services, XML, Java, or .NET components that can be reused to build composite applications. Whether the IT environment is IBM zSeries (S/390), IBM iSeries (AS/400), UNIX, OpenVMS, or HP e3000, Verastream can give users a new look and feel, without disturbing mainframe-application code or associated business processes.
This paper illustrates the Verastream architecture and suggests best practices for both design and deployment.
Select the PDF link above to read the full paper.