New software and initiatives from IBM will help companies better handle Internet-based business processes and applications on the IBM System z mainframe. IBM estimates that transactions running on mainframes could double before 2010.

Driving this is the rising tide of services oriented architecture (SOA). Thanks to the Internet an explosion of interconnected business processes -- such as grocery chains cross-checking inventory and shipping with suppliers -- now flow through interconnected applications. And businesses are relying on modular code, or "services," to string together applications between different types of computers.

As per a survey of U.S. and European companies by Forrester Research, nearly 70 percent of SOA users say they will increase their use of SOA, and 62 percent of organizations with more than 20,000 employees are currently using or plan to use SOAs in the next 12 months. Almost half of large enterprises that deploy SOAs are using the mainframe for strategic business transformation, said the report.

"Mainframes -- which process much of the world's most strategic information and applications -- are now finding second careers as the hub for SOA," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group. "Customers today are just beginning to scratch the surface of what a services-oriented approach to software can do to make their businesses more responsive and opportunistic. By using mainframes to free up, connect and use information that's stored in applications, companies can bring products to market faster, make quicker connections with global business partners, deliver better service to customers and streamline their IT operations".

IBM announced new mainframe tools and "middleware," as well as business partner and university initiatives, that will encourage more developers to create mainframe applications.



Posted by: Ethan    Source