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RAPID. EASY. PROVEN.
Enter Promo Code Web.
In a services environment, it is not enough to simply “service enable” a transaction. As mainframes take center stage in an SOA infrastructure, it is critical that a business unit of work is exposed at the proper level of granularity from the mainframe, possibly spanning multiple subsystems.
How is it possible to expose business logic, application logic, and data that more than likely will cross multiple systems – CICS, IMS, DB2, VSAM, and even technologies like CA-IDMS, CA-Ideal or Natural without acquiring multiple integration solutions? The only way to accomplish this is with the right tooling: It’s essential to create what is known as a composite service. This facilitates rapid response to business change – the goal of every organization.
Unlike simply service-enabling underlying transactions, composite services allow the development of business services that encompass mainframe transactions, data, and application logic. The alternative to the composite approach highlighted above is to expose each individual transaction separately and then attempt to orchestrate it all together off the mainframe using a BPEL tool or application code to package up a composite service. Even if the orchestration succeeds, you are still faced with a poor performing service with multiple points of failure.
Only composite services can deliver true business value from mainframe assets. Composite services from the mainframe may even include Web services from external platforms. The key is identifying the true business service that is hidden beneath the green screen, COMMAREA, or IMS mainframe application. These business services have to be understandable to not only a COBOL developer, but to a business analyst – and more importantly – the end user of the service.
To truly deliver on the promise of SOA, orchestrating composite services from mainframe applications, transactions, and data is essential.
The automated service orchestration offered by Ivory Service Architect is the cornerstone of success for mainframe-based service development. Not only does the Ivory Studio component enable mainframe developers to quickly and easily assemble multi-step, multi-operation composite business services from existing mainframe assets, the Ivory Server component provides a high-performance runtime engine for executing the deployed business services.
