MainframemiddlewarefirmDataDirect
Technologieshas developed technology to
enable businesses runningIBM z/OSmainframes to save on
software licensing costs by offloading applications on to dedicated
mainframe processors.
Mainframe software is licensed based on performance, measured in
Mips (millions of instructions per second). Machines are shipped
with the highest level of configuration, and users then buy the
amount of Mips they require. Mainframe users also have three
optional processors that can be installed, which are not limited by
the Mips-based licensing. The
zAAP processor
provides
Java application acceleration, zIIP is a security accelerator,
and IPL offers Linux processing.
DataDirect's Technologies' Shadow range of products has been
designed to integrate mainframe technology with applications built
in Java and .net, or into
service oriented
architectures.
The Shadow BPel tool has been designed to run on the zAAP
processor, while XML parsing, Soap message processing,
Secure
Sockets Layer, tracing, and security will be dispatched on the
zIIP processor.
Rob Evelyn vice-president of strategy at DataDirect, said that
by using zAAP, businesses will be able to gain better performance
and throughput without upgrading their existing mainframe
environments.