DataDirect Technologies' Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption Tool Transforms The Mainframe Into Industry Standard Server Providing Direct Consumption of Distributed Web Services

Business Wire, Oct 17, 2006

Benefits of Bi-Directional Mainframe Web Services Spur Increased Customer Adoption

BEDFORD, Mass. -- DataDirect Technologies, the unparalleled leader in data connectivity and mainframe integration and an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), today announced that customer adoption for its industry-leading Web services consumption technology continues to grow as more organizations use advanced mainframe SOA solutions to transform mainframe systems into industry standard enterprise servers.

The Shadow z/Services(TM) WsC Web Services Consumption tool is a component of DataDirect's Shadow RTE[TM] mainframe integration suite and enables a mainframe environment to consume an external Web service - one that resides outside of the mainframe environment - and incorporate the new functionality into a mainframe program. Bi-directional Web services support for mainframe systems can significantly enhance an organization's ability to include mainframe data, business logic and screen logic in new application development initiatives.

Web services consumption provides another means to address real-time data consistency between mainframe and distributed databases. With broader mainframe access to distributed database platforms, developers can build Web services deployed on Web-based, distributed platforms and use tools like the Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption tool to enable the mainframe to initiate requests for data updates from the externally based Web service.

"The role of the mainframe is changing as organizations realize the benefits SOA can provide to interoperability without sacrificing performance, scalability or security. While there are products available on the market today that generate and deploy mainframe Web services, DataDirect was the first to offer a tool to leverage the mainframe as both a publisher and consumer of industry standard Web services," said Chris Garner, vice president of research and development for DataDirect Technologies' Shadow([R]) products. "With this bi-directional SOA enablement, the mainframe is less a proprietary island and more an industry standard enterprise server. This allows organizations to have a broader enterprise wide utilization of their information technology leading to more streamlined business processes, reduced costs and the ability to more quickly respond to changing business conditions."

DataDirect's Leadership in Web Services Consumption

Customers of DataDirect that have expanded their SOA implementations with the Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption tool include The Seattle Times, The State of Idaho and Kansas City Life Insurance Company, to name a few.

At The Seattle Times the Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption tool has enabled a COBOL-based customer subscription application to consume .NET Web services used to validate credit-card information. ePay, a proprietary automatic payment authorization application built on the .NET framework uses the Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption tool to share data with a legacy circulation application handling distribution of the newspaper and customer activity (billing, payment received, complaint processing, delivery sequence, etc.). When a Seattle Times subscriber gives credit card information via the phone or e-mail that information is captured at point-of-sale by ePay for real-time payment authorization. The application consumes Web services at both ends, gathering and storing pertinent information on the card to be shared with the mainframe-based subscription systems, and then on the way back out of the mainframe, appropriately updating the customer account that payment has been received.

"The Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption product has been an extremely useful tool, helping us achieve real-time credit card authorization that dramatically lowers the expense of accepting and processing credit cards, while enabling us to run same-day settlements that directly benefit the customer," said John Saum, architect and design manager of The Seattle Times. "With this DataDirect([R]) product, the mainframe has unrestricted use of the ePay distributed application, essentially enabling the mainframe to act as a client to the overall SOA architecture, able to consume common Web services available to all applications supported by the underlying architecture."

Other customer organizations, like Kansas City Life Insurance Company, use the Shadow z/Services Web Services Consumption component to support its Web portal community as the centerpiece of its SOA strategy. To improve agent productivity, the insurance carrier created a Web portal built in the .NET framework that interacts with its CyberLife policy administration package on the mainframe. With the Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption tool, Kansas City Life Insurance Company is able to encapsulate mainframe logic into reusable, easily deployed services for ease of integration. The bi-directional Web services capabilities of the Shadow z/Services WsC Web Services Consumption with SQL server tool have enabled the insurance provider to quickly assimilate new agents into its Web portal community, supporting improved agent productivity and increased customer service levels.