DataDirect Technologies Helps Reduce Mainframe Costs with zIIP Integration Support for CA IDMS™ r17

Business Wire, Nov 17, 2008

DataDirect([R]) Shadow([R]) Offers Unique zIIP Exploitation Capabilities that Complement CA IDMS r17 for Dramatically Reduced Mainframe Total-Cost-of-Ownership

BEDFORD, Mass. -- DataDirect Technologies, the unparalleled leader in mainframe integration and data connectivity and an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), today announced at CA World 2008 in Las Vegas its support for the latest release of CA IDMS[TM], r17. The high-availability, high-performance mainframe database management system includes enhanced architecture that makes wide use of the IBM System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) to deliver greater computing capacity and throughput without requiring additional system hardware resources. Similarly, the DataDirect([R]) Shadow([R]) product is the only mainframe integration middleware that can exploit the IBM specialty engines. Like CA IDMS r17, DataDirect Shadow offers significant zIIP exploitation enabling mainframe users to direct a broad set of functions to the zIIP for improved throughput and lower mainframe total-cost-of- ownership (TCO).

DataDirect Shadow version 7 was designed to improve performance and lower costs associated with mainframe SOA enablement and legacy data access. As the first mainframe integration middleware to capitalize on the inherent performance and cost advantages of the IBM specialty engines, DataDirect Shadow version 7 opens the zIIP specialty engine to additional workloads beyond DB2, including SOAP/XML parsing for the transformation of screen logic and business logic into Web services as well as mainframe data queries to CA IDMS, IMS, VSAM, and Adabas. With the DataDirect Shadow product's patent-pending design, SOA integration processing and data queries can be diverted from the mainframe's General Purpose Processor (GPP) and offloaded to the zIIP and/or System z Application Assist Processor (zAAP) specialty engines.

CA IDMS r17 takes a wide zIIP exploitation approach allowing for portions of all typical CA IDMS production workloads including those generated by online transaction, batch processing jobs and distributed platform requests to be off-loaded to zIIP engines rather than execute on more expensive GPPs. CA IDMS r17 users can now scale their database environments without incurring expensive hardware upgrades.

"DataDirect Technologies and CA are both committed to helping our customers gain increased white space capacity on their z/OS systems and more easily extend their mainframe applications to deliver new business services," said Greg Beedy, senior principal product manager at CA. "The combination of CA IDMS r17 and DataDirect Shadow provides complementary zIIP-enabled environment that lets customers leverage their existing mainframe investments to implement new SOA solutions without adding new hardware costs."

CA World Mainframe Specialty Engine Presentation

Gregg Willhoit, chief architect of the DataDirect Shadow product will present, "Cost Effective SOA Enablement of CA IDMS Systems Using zIIP and/or zAAP Specialty Engines," at CA World 2008, Nov. 20 from 11:00 a.m. - Noon in the Bellini 2006 Room of the Venetian Congress Center and Sands Expo. The presentation will address both native CA IDMS/DC COBOL and CA ADS application reuse and the exploitation of zIIP and zAAP mainframe specialty engines to lower mainframe total-cost-of-ownership for SOA related projects. Gregg will also explore the DataDirect Shadow product's ability to simplify the development of mainframe Web services from screens or business logic - and with a click, orchestrate via BPEL to create macro Web services to support process improvement.

About DataDirect Technologies

DataDirect Technologies is the software industry's only comprehensive provider of software for connecting the world's most critical business applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards. Developers worldwide depend on DataDirect[R] products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC[TM] and ADO.NET, XQuery and SOAP. More than 300 leading independent software vendors and thousands of enterprises rely on DataDirect Technologies to simplify and streamline data connectivity for distributed systems and to reduce the complexity of mainframe integration. DataDirect Technologies is an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS). For more information, visit www.datadirect.com.

DataDirect and Shadow are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Java and all Java based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.