Case Study: HostBridge XML-Enables CICS Transactions for Delta Dental
HostBridge creates first, true XML pathway from middle-tier application servers to CICS
STILLWATER, Oklahoma - 22 January 2001 - HostBridge Technology today announced HostBridge, a patent pending software solution that allows enterprises to take a quantum leap forward in integrating their existing CICS transactions into scalable e-Business applications. HostBridge is the first solution for securely invoking existing CICS transactions via an HTTP request and delivering their output as an XML document—not a 3270 screen.
CICS transactions, running on IBM enterprise servers, are the most common category of host-based e-Business transactions. Enterprises have typically extended these transactions to the web using “web-to-host” products that rely on terminal emulation, screen scraping, proprietary development tools and scripting languages. “As corporations continue making the transition from ‘bricks-and-mortar’ enterprises to ‘clicks-and-mortar’, they must provide employees, partners, and customers with better access to enterprise data via intranets, extranets and the Internet,” states Russ Teubner, founder of HostBridge Technology. “This requires a more robust, scalable and cost-effective approach to legacy application and data integration. Industry standards like XML are key to e-Business enablement, but what good is XML if one of the most common categories of e-Business transactions can’t use it? By replacing terminal-oriented data streams with an XML document containing simple name/value pairs, HostBridge drastically reduces the complexity of integrating CICS data with e-Business applications.”
“Today, IBM customers use CICS to process over 30 billion transactions per day with a commercial value of several trillion dollars per week, says Dr. Geoff Sharman, senior consultant with IBM Transaction Systems. “By allowing these customers to XML-enable existing transactions without code changes, HostBridge demonstrates how easily CICS transactions can be integrated into rapidly deployed and highly scalable e-business applications.”
HostBridge facilitates this integration by providing a platform-neutral, XML pathway from CICS transactions to middle-tier application servers. In doing so, HostBridge completely circumvents the use of 3270 data streams and the many, layered components associated with screen scraping-based solutions. “Many enterprises that are using web-to-host solutions which rely on screen scraping techniques are finding they have difficulty scaling,” says Darcy Fowkes, research director of Internet services for the Aberdeen Group. “This is unacceptable to organizations that have a large investment in CICS/BMS applications that are running in high volume, production environments. These organizations need an alternative to terminal emulation and screen scraping-based technologies to e-enable these production environments. HostBridge provides a more direct, XML pathway to middle-tier application servers.”
Delta Dental of California is embarking on a number of projects to web-enable legacy CICS programs with HostBridge, replacing web-to-host solutions that rely on screen scraping. Delta’s current implementation allows intranet-connected Delta Dental customer support representatives and Internet-connected customers to obtain patient data and dental insurance claim information using a simplified web browser interface. In some cases, data from as many as 80 CICS screens, and from two different CICS systems, are consolidated into a single HMTL page in response to a user request. “While our current solution is handling a load of approximately 500,000 transactions per day, we are hesitant to continue with this approach much longer,” says Marshall Gordon, chief architect of the Caspian Consulting Group, a vendor organization that provides distributed systems services to Delta. “In our opinion, products that rely upon screen scraping techniques are not as robust or as expedient as what’s available to us through HostBridge.”
HostBridge delivers output from an existing CICS/BMS transaction as an XML document containing order independent, name-value pairs rather than a fixed format, 3270 screen buffer. This eliminates the middle-tier application’s dependence on screen formats as well as the need to synchronize changes to the host and middle-tier applications. HostBridge is insensitive to changes in the location of fields on a 3270 screen that would cause screen scraping solutions to fail because it intercepts data into, and out of, a CICS transaction before a 3270 data stream is generated as output or expected as input. In fact, using HostBridge, a 3270 data stream is never created. This is possible because HostBridge interacts with CICS applications through the 3270 Bridge interface, a standard feature of CICS Transaction Server 1.3. No modifications to CICS applications are required; no per-transaction setup is required either.
“HostBridge allows us to web-enable these legacy transactions without changing them or writing any new code,” continues Gordon. “Our plans for expansion include using HostBridge to improve productivity, enhance performance, and reduce the cost of maintenance. Given our current rate of growth, we need to be prepared to handle over 1 million transactions per day.”
HostBridge is compatible with any middle-tier application server that can send an HTTP request and receive an XML document. This includes IBM WebSphere™, BEA WebLogic® and SilverStream Application Server. HostBridge also compliments the broad range of evolving middleware technologies based upon XML, including Microsoft BizTalk and SilverStream xCommerce. “SilverStream xCommerce is an XML-based integration server that enables enterprises to connect a broad range of business systems with internal and external user communities”, said Fred Holahan, VP & General Manager of SilverStream’s B2B Solutions Division. “Although major application software vendors are embracing XML as their eBusiness interoperability standard, the application portfolios of many enterprises include host-based legacy systems. To succeed in eBusiness integration, enterprises need a range of choices for XML-enabling their host-based applications. HostBridge provides a unique approach for XML-enabling CICS terminal-oriented applications, one that complements xCommerce’s legacy integration strategy. Once CICS transactions have been XML-enabled using HostBridge, they can be accessed by xCommerce to support real-time integrations with Web portals, trading exchanges, vendor packages and non-CICS legacy applications.”
About Delta Dental
Delta Dental Plan of California is the state’s largest dental plan with nearly 14 million members and contracts with 92 percent of the state’s dentists. Its affiliates include PMI Dental Health Plan, the state’s largest dental HMO, and Delta Dental Insurance Company, which operates in 10 states, primarily in the South and Southeast. Earlier this year, Delta of California announced the formation of an alliance with Delta Dental of Pennsylvania, which created the nation’s largest dental benefits delivery system with 16.2 million members nationwide. Both are part of the Delta Dental Plans Association, whose member plans collectively cover 35 million people nationwide.
