HostBridge Mainframe Integration Software
HostBridge is mainframe integration software. Running under CICS, the HostBridge base product intercepts CICS data before terminal data streams are generated as output or expected as input. HostBridge then auto-converts the data to XML documents for ready integration with other enterprise applications, distributed systems, web applications, and any service-oriented architecture (SOA).HostBridge products exploit and complement the very latest and best that CICS Terminal Server natively offers. HostBridge also supports all relevant industry standards, including XML, HTTP, SOAP, and others. With HostBridge, XML- and services-based integration of CICS data is fast, flexible, cost-effective, and reliable.
The HostBridge base product is a prerequisite for all other HostBridge products, modules, and connectors.
High-Performance, High-Fidelity CICS Integration
By design, HostBridge delivers the highest-performance integration for CICS and other mainframe resources.
HostBridge achieves higher performance because it runs on the mainframe under CICS, at the full speed of CICS. Middle-tier solutions, by contrast, require a full travel on the network between server and mainframe for each transaction, resulting in slower response times due to request/response latency and higher CPU demands on the mainframe. In high-volume environments, these differences will be significant and will directly impact the speed and efficiency of business processes.
In addition, because it intercepts and converts CICS data before data streams are generated, HostBridge is uniquely able to use screen and/or field names to identify and interact with application screens. This name-based navigation avoids the performance penalties incurred by middle-tier screen-scraping solutions, which use row/column coordinates to specify field locations and interact with applications. When field locations change, screen-scraper interactions grind to a halt and integrations break. With HostBridge, location changes have no effect on integrations.
HostBridge also ensures that integrations faithfully reproduce the originating CICS data, business logic, and applications. Direct conversion of CICS to industry-standard XML ensures that data and screens are simply and exactly reproduced as legacy data wrapped in metadata. Also, the use of screen/field names to identify and navigate screens ensures that HostBridge integrations replicate the CICS original without distortion or breakage. For users or applications accessing CICS through HostBridge, high fidelity means interactions that are reliably accurate and error-free.
HostBridge Base Product Features
- XML Auto-Generation: Once installed, HostBridge immediately and automatically XML-enables CICS transactions, which in turn makes CICS integration-ready.
- SOAP Support: SOAP support integrates CICS applications as web services, enabling distributed applications to invoke CICS transactions as web services.
- HTTP Interface: Distributed applications can invoke CICS applications directly using HTTP requests over TCP/IP. Any application capable of sending a URL and receiving an XML document can access CICS data. This standard approach maximizes integration flexibility.
- LINK Interface (ECI/EXCI): Mainframe applications with existing COMMAREA interfaces can utilize HostBridge’s XML output abilities.
- Fixed-Format XML: HostBridge XML output confirms to a predictable document structure, making it easier for developers to pull data out of the XML results.
- Standards-Based: Developers can integrate CICS transactions into web services with their existing knowledge, lowering development time and costs.
- Security: HostBridge works securely with and within IBM-provided components supporting standard mainframe security systems, such as RACF, ACF/2, and TopSecret, as well as SSL and digital certificates.
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