Companies that implement SAP have an interesting and sometimes challenging dilemma. What to do with the information that is still on the mainframe?
Having the ability to integrate mainframe data and applications with SAP is a better alternative than replication of data and business logic. It is also more effective and cheaper. If you don’t believe me, believe our customers that have done it.
- A major payroll processing company to needed a solution that would bridge its legacy VSAM-based CRM system to its new SAP CRM platform. Using Ivory, the company now has access to its legacy CRM data on the mainframe from SAP as well as single sign-on capabilities, which eliminated the need for multiple logins to disparate systems, saving time, reducing risk, and increasing productivity.
- A major US based defense contractor moved a majority of core business functions to SAP preserving the investment of thousands of mainframe apps and business logic. By deploying Ivory, the company integrated its disparate mainframe applications, including CICS, IMS, and CA IDMS, while others were migrated to SAP preserving its mainframe services for reusability.
- A European management agency deployed SAP to its divisions for a new system of records for land parcels, and was challenged to synchronize its CA IDMS data with SAP. Using Ivory, the company built a service that automatically updated SAP Oracle each time an update is made on the CA IDMS mainframe system, in addition to delivering nightly batch updates.
Visit www.gtsoftware.com for information on SAP or other application integration solutions.
Platforms come and platforms go, and last week IBM announced the biggest and baddest mainframe on the planet, but what if you’re living in a VSE world? I know that you’re out there and you probably feel sometimes that you aren’t getting as much attention as other platforms. The other thing that I know, because I subscribe to the VSE listserv and regularly visit several VSE forums, is that there are many businesses out depending on VSE to run day to day operations.
The challenge for you however is that the number of software vendors committed to VSE is dwindling down every year. But I have great news to share. GT Software has been and continues to be committed to providing superior software solutions for the VSE platform. All GT Software products run on VSE:
- Assist/GT – field and screen level help
- BMS/GT – WYSIWYG BMS map generator
- Ivory VisualConnect – extend and enhance 3270 applications to the web
- Ivory Data Access – SQL access to mainframe data
- Ivory Service Architect – web service enable mainframe applications
So if you want to modernize VSE mainframe applications, expose VSE data to open systems applications, or SOA enable your VSE core applications, GT Software continues to be there for you. Visit www.gtsoftware.com for more details.
If anyone has any doubt that the mainframe is more relevant today than it has ever been, one only needs to look at the technology pages today and read about the latest and greatest IBM mainframe. The new zEnterprise mainframe is touted as the most powerful mainframe, 40% to 60% faster than the z10, and more cost efficient than any previous model. Developed over the last three years with the collaboration of over 30 of IBM’s top customers and $1.5 billion in R&D dollars, this new model will fundamentally change the landscape in the datacenter. The workloads on the mainframe, Power 7, and System x blade servers can now share resources and can be managed as a single virtualized system. The goal of this platform is to bring the disparate silos of information together under an integrated umbrella by managing up to 100,000 virtualized servers as a single system. In addition to the added processing capabilities, the zEnterprise system has a water cooled option that could reduce energy consumption by up to 12%.
Martin Kennedy, MD, enterprise system infrastructure, Citi, says: “The new IBM zEnterprise System represents a potentially revolutionary change to the platform and the next phase in the evolution of highly efficient, scalable processing opening up the possibility of hosting entire workloads on a single highly integrated system.”
By enabling companies to manage workloads across systems as one, the zEnterprise System can drive up to 40% lower acquisition costs and reduce cost of ownership by 55%, says the vendor while also helping to make significant energy savings.
“As one of America’s greenest banks we plan to take full advantage of the additional capacity and advanced power and cooling capabilities unique to zEnterprise. Citi’s unified technology decision making model and its recent efforts to gain efficiencies prepared us to invest in these innovative technologies that benefit our clients,” concludes Kennedy.
As an IBM partner, GT Software realizes the value of the IBM mainframe and is committed to providing industry leading products for mainframe integration.
In the next IMS Newsletter, due out in the next few weeks, GT Software is featured in two different articles. First is an article by Rob Morris titled “Returns of the Day: Banking on IMS”, and on the back cover the featured “I am IMS” article is on our own Paul Sewell. Rob highlights the long legacy that GT has with IMS expertise and experience and the trust that global customers have in GT to enable their IMS systems as service providers and consumers. GT has been fully integrating IMS with the Ivory Service Architect for IMS customers in many industries around the world. Paul Sewell , the GT Director or Marketing, is a perfect example of the next generation of young professional who “get” the power and flexibility of mainframes and especially IMS.
Look for the IMS newsletter link on the IMS Home Page in the next few weeks and see for yourself why GT Software is IMS, and Paul Sewell is IMS.
Last week at CA World in Las Vegas, GT Software formally announced Ivory 4.2. Most prominently, in this release, you will see a major commitment from GT Software to providing support for CA Ideal, CA IDMS, and CA Datacom. By preserving and web-service enabling CA Ideal-based applications, Ivory 4.2 allows you to derive even more business value from your investment in mainframe systems. Features like an intelligent panel analyzer for CA Ideal panels and the ability to exploit the 3270 bridge facility in CICS makes CA integration fast, easy and efficient.
The latest version of Ivory Service Architect also contains a substantial list of other exciting enhancements. Most notably is the ability to use the Delegate Node processing on both the Ivory Server for Windows and the Ivory Java Server. Allowing the execution of custom .NET and Java programs greatly increases the coverage and scope of functionality by including routines like: compression, un-compression, data manipulation routines, or custom functions
Click here to read the full press release or visit www.gtsoftware.com for more details.
In today’s lean economy, many organizations have decided that attending tradeshows is a luxury. We all know that you can gather valuable subject matter information or training by making these trips. Most tradeshows also have a vendor exhibition hall so that you can see and touch the technology that is being talked about in the sessions first hand.
GT Software will be participating in CA May Mainframe Madness from May 3 – 31, 2010. This virtual tradeshow will allow you to take advantage of much of the information you would get if you were there in person.
Why attend?
Customers, partners and the “just curious” attend CA May Mainframe Madness for the valuable experience we are able to deliver. We bring together IT professionals and experts all dedicated to the optimum management of IT. Over the month of May, we will offer:
- New ideas to help you leverage IT to drive business and organizational priorities
- Technical sessions, customer case studies and other education materials on-demand
- Exhibition Hall with best-in-class IT solutions in our 20+ virtual booths
- 50 Keynote presentations and over 150 virtual sessions and demos overall
- Numerous networking opportunities for every type of mainframe and IT role
- A Job Role Resource Center to show what we have for your specific job role
- Prizes
- And much, much more … Register free today
What are the subject areas?
15 Tracks and 20 Booths to include: Mainframe 2.0, Application Performance Management, Application Quality and Testing Tools, Data Transport, Database Management, Databases, Linux Management, Modernization and Application Development, Network Management, Output Management and Enterprise Reporting Management, PCI Compliance, Resource Management, Security Management, Session Management, Software Change Management, Storage Management, Systems Management and Workload Automation.
“See” you there!
Maybe I shouldn’t admit this on a public technology forum, but I am not really a big Star Trek fan. I am however a HUGE fan of Linux on System z. Think about it…the hyperdrive allowed the starship to fly through space faster than the speed of light, virtually un-throttled in earthly terms. You also don’t see huge fuel tanks to power this unleashed speed, almost like it’s free. Imagine now having un-throttled speed on the mainframe that will allow you to get work done faster than on your GPP (general purpose processor) and as an extra incentive, the MIPS on the IFL (Integrated Facility for Linux) are free! Linux on System z, the Hyperdrive for the mainframe.
GT Software has extended its Ivory Service Architect product to run on Linux on System z. This means that you can now host your mainframe SOA infrastructure on the IFL. Take advantage of the power and stability of the mainframe without impacting your GPP or your bottom line. If you would like to learn more, please attend this live webcast to learn how you can save money, reduce MIPS, and expand your mainframe SOA strategy without impacting your GP. For more information, view the following Webcast: Mainframe Integration with Linux on System z
I have been working with mainframe computers since 1982. With the Ivory Service Architect Studio, I have done hundreds of demos and POCs where I have imported BMS maps, viewed the BMS source, etc. But one thing I have never done is either hand code or maintain a BMS map. I guess, looking at the complexity of the BMS macro source, one thing I can say it that the Macro code is not something I would want to code by hand. The good news for you and me is that with BMS/TS and Ivory BMS from GT Software, you never need to write another line of BMS Macro code. More importantly, you also don’t need any training.
With BMS/TS, you simply open up a WYSIWYG screen painter on the mainframe, design your map by laying out the screen right in front of you, and submit the map to the LOADLIB. Customers have experienced up to an 80% productivity gain over hand coding maps. And if you prefer using a Windows development tool, Ivory BMS allows you to create and maintain maps right on your desktop. You don’t even need to be attached to the mainframe. So why would you ever want to hand code a map again?
http://www.gtsoftware.com/content/ivory-service-architect
One of the biggest challenges we face in life is not wanting to pay for the whole bowl just to get a taste. If software companies were like ice cream shops, they would have a little bowl of spoons that would allow you to try web services before you bought a whole bowl, or whatever the mainframe equivalent of a bowl is. GT Software announced this week that if you want to start slow, or just dip your toe into the water of web services, that you can pay as you go. More specifically, you only pay for the web services you put into production and actually use.
By taking “financial risk” off the table, an organization can truly focus on the business value of mainframe integration. To further mitigate risk, the Ivory product line offers deployment of web services to a range of platforms off the mainframe so additional mainframe workload can also be taken off the table. If you want to stay on the mainframe, we will leverage MIPS reducing hardware such as zIIP, zAAP and the IFL processors with zLinux.
This is a radical departure from what you get from the traditional software licensing model, but we are so confident that once you try Ivory, you will be successful. “GT Software deserves praise for taking some of the user’s risk onto its own shoulders by only charging for customer success,” said Steve Craggs, Principal Analyst at Lustratus Research. “Too many vendors throw fee-based or even free software at projects and then walk away, leaving users to struggle to achieve value and carry all the risk. By linking its own reward to user success, GT Software creates the best possible win/win incentive.”
One of the biggest integration challenges many developers have faced over the years is what to do about the data. Especially when that data resides on the mainframe. Over the years, programs have been written, FTP processes executed, ODBC/JDBC based applications created, none really providing a seamless and straight forward way of integrating data.
With the increased popularity and acceptance of web services, one must not forget about the data. Having a strategy for providing data access from within a coarse grained service, or as part of a fine grained or business service, is crucial to the success of an SOA strategy. By using a standard web services interface to the data, no programs need to be written, no FTP processes created, and there is absolutely no need for ODBC or JDBC. This capability adds a dimension to composite services that lends a great deal of flexibility. Imagine doing a database lookup and passing that data into another application without writing an application to get that data. This is the nirvana of data integration.
