Progress DataDirect, the data-infrastructure division of Progress Software, said that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Mainline Information Systems, a provider of IBM servers, storage and software offerings.
Under the terms of the agreement, Mainline will offer mainframe integration middleware, Progress DataDirect Shadow to its customers looking for mainframe modernisation through SOA enablement and legacy-data integration.
According to Progress, the DataDirect Shadow product is a single, unified platform built exclusively for integration with IBM System z mainframes. Its foundation architecture supports all major requirements for integrating mainframe data, business logic, and screens with SOAs and composite application development initiatives.
The DataDirect Shadow platform uses the technology to expand the utilisation of IBM System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) specialty engine to additional workloads beyond DB2, including the non-relational mainframe databases Adabas, IMS/DB, IDMS and VSAM, as well SOAP/XML parsing necessary for creating web services within the mainframe to applications residing within CICS, IMS/TM, IDMS and Natural, the company said.
Reportedly, Progress DataDirect brings to the Mainline professional services portfolio the Shadow Mainframe TCO Calculator for measuring the impact of web services, SOA and SQL data processing on mainframe MIPS capacity and the benefit of zIIP offload.
Doug Harrell, vice president of System z sales at Mainline Information Systems, said: “The DataDirect Shadow platform’s unique zIIP exploitation capabilities, standardized data access and depth of mainframe environment support will help our customers reduce the cost and complexity of legacy data integration and make the mainframe a first-class participant in enterprise-class initiatives like SOA, BI, MDM or ERP.”
