SOA Enablement of the Legacy Mainframe
Do I have to turn off the mainframe? Does Oracle SOA Suite interact in this environment? How?
I get questions around SOA and the mainframe quite a
lot these days. Sometimes when we talk about "legacy
modernization", people automatically infer that we want to replace the
mainframe, and SOA Suite doesn't fit into the Mainframe mix, or you need to use
IBM products to expose the mainframe. While transition away from the mainframe
is often the end game for many customers, staying on the mainframe and enabling
legacy code without touching it is one option for legacy modernization. At
Oracle we call that modernization option, SOA EnablementUsually within the context of SOA many think of BPEL, ESBs...etc orchestrating existing (but different), environments, and incorrectly believe that perhaps the mainframe is still off limits or something best left to IBM. This may seem obvious to some, but it still seems to be a point of misunderstanding for others. Oracle SOA solutions CAN be a way to modernization legacy applications by enabling Legacy Mainframe (Cobol, Natural...etc) without touching the legacy code, dropping the mainframe or even worrying about how that messy that legacy code works.
With ESB's or BPEL along with mainframe adaptors, Oracle can make legacy
application hot pluggable into the modern framework, orchestrate legacy
services, expose even non-oracle data stores like Adabas and allow the
orchestration of information to more modern systems build on our J2EE
stack.
The important points here that I want to highlight and clarify is; 1) Modernization
of the Legacy Mainframe doesn't always mean you have to rid yourself of the
mainframe. 2)SOA Suite can be introduced and implemented in a legacy
environment. We have solutions not only around the orchestration of data, but
ways to access the most common (and sometime very uncommon) legacy
applications.
The problem that SOA of the mainframe
doesn't solve (which isn't the topic here) is the cost of the mainframe and its
software, the cost to change legacy code and the lack of general agility as
compared to more modern systems....but again...we can talk more about that
later.
Here are some links around Modernization Options with Oracle that covers SOA of the Mainframe.
Link to Oracle SOA Modernization
Link to SOA Suite
Comments (2)
Jason,
While I agree with most of your premises and conclusions, I would add some points to bring some nuances to your statements. I do not know if you�ll agree with them, I�m looking forward for your comments.
While in principle � or theoretically � a mainframe application should be enabled and exploited immediately in SOA architecture, practically the task may be more complicated, for a number of reasons:
a. Capturing services via screens would � as it is generally accepted � render very brittle services.
b. Capturing services via program parameters � the so-called COMMAREA � requires some special attention. COMMAREA may be stacked with all kind of fields which are superfluous for the services, but which may create crashes if not given proper values.
c. Finding the proper program with service potential in an application may not be a trivial task.
d. Programs which sometimes appear as perfect services may have some architectural flaws which are hard to detect during simple testing but may create real headaches later.
As with other things in life, there is no free lunch. I believe though that Oracle offers very stable, elegant and robust solutions with offer real alternatives for legacy modernization. I believe Oracle�s solutions are oriented towards the distributed processing technologies (no surprise here). There is however a need for rigorous analysis and rearchitecting on the legacy application side. This is where Relativity does a superior job, complementing Oracle�s technologies.
Mike Oara
CTO, Relativity Technologies Inc.
Posted by Mike Oara | December 18, 2006 2:43 PM
Posted on December 18, 2006 14:43
Mike,
These are EXCELLENT points you have raised.
A lot of folks who are not familiar with the mainframe don't understand that exposing the services is not always as easy as dropping in an adaptor.
For example, you mention the brittleness of the simple screen scrape. To further this thought, in many cases it is all that is needed to "expose" a mainframe application to the web.
However, if you are doing new Development, or have some COTS applications (like PeopleSoft etc) and there are key business processes on the mainframe that the screens do not have access to OR they are co-mingled with the programs that the screen(s) have access to, one needs to be able to 1)Identify these services and 2)Figure a way to uncover these to then expose via an adaptor. So, yes I agree with you...no free lunch, but you CAN use Oracle Middleware to connect the mainframe to other applications and platforms.
I think the key thought that I wanted to communicate is that Oracle technologies CAN be implemented in a modernization effort even if the mainframe STAYS PUT. You have brought up the great point that it is usually more than just dropping in an adaptor.
Thanks Mike
Jason Williamson
Product Manager - Oracle Modernization
Posted by Jason Williamson | January 12, 2007 10:14 AM
Posted on January 12, 2007 10:14