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DataDirect Puts the zIIP in SOA Mainframes
10/19/2007
"A lot of mainframe middleware options for Web services are [IBM] CICS-based," Willhoit explained. "And so when they run inside CICS, not only are they costing MSUs or processing, they're taking away from the capabilities of CICS. Basically, they are borrowing from CICS processing to do Web services process."
In addition to boosting performance and lowering total cost of ownership for mainframe operators with Shadow 7, DataDirect enhanced its Shadow Studio solution, which is an open Eclipse-based management console. Shadow Studio now includes a graphic BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) designer and runtime management interface to create workflows in a mainframe environment. Developers can also use any BPEL 2.0 designer with the system.
Shadow 7 represents a break from the past, according to Willhoit.
"For the customer, Shadow represents a huge reduction in the complexity of integrating the mainframe," he explained. "Before Shadow, there was just a proliferation of point integration solutions, and ultimately these build up. They are individually maintained. They are sometimes custom coded internally. They are just difficult to sustain and there are increased points of failure. So Shadow brings them in."
Shadow is just one of DataDirect's business lines. The company, which has been around for about 20 years, specializes in using industry-standard APIs to provide connectivity to various backend technologies and got its start in relational database connectivity (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET). The company also has an XML data integration business line enabling XML data with relational sources or with Web services.
DataDirect is a $75-million company, a division of Progress Software Corp., and its solutions are distributed with the products of more than 300 independent software vendors.
Kurt Mackie is Web editor of RCPmag.com and ADTmag.com. He can be reached at kmackie@1105media.com.
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