A Data Replication Solution that Hits theTarget (and Source)

by Chris Rudolph, Senior Technical Representative for Treehouse Software and Joseph Brady, Marketing and Documentation Manager for Treehouse Software

Today’s IT organization is dealing with any number of challenges, including heterogeneous environments, legacy applications, high-availability information systems, data silos, increasing data volumes, and escalating costs. These factors make it imperative that IT departments find cost-effective solutions for enterprise-wide data management, preferably using intelligent data integration and efficient data synchronization.

Data exchange in a heterogeneous IT infrastructure means harmonization of different data formats and data models for data exchange solutions. Very often, this data exchange is a complex and tedious task that represents a major cost factor. Data exchange is also time-sensitive and critical, hence reliability and auditability of all data movements is important.

Since the mid-1990s, Treehouse Software has dominated the ADABAS-to-RDBMS data migration and integration market, with its proven and powerful ETL, CDC, and real-time replication solutions. The addition of two mainframe integration products: tcACCESS and tcVISION, enable the migration of virtually any mainframe database or data source in a cost-effective manner.

Enterprise data integration with tcACCESS provides a powerful integration platform (mainframe software, workstation software, middleware) for IBM mainframes, enabling transparent integration of mainframe data sources and programs into open-systems applications using industry standards like SQL, ODBC, JDBC, and .NET. A modular software solution, tcACCESS, comprises a base system that can either be implemented as a CICS transaction or as a VTAM application, and provides its own communication modules. The heart of the system is the tcACCESS SQL Engine, which allows access to mainframe data sources using SQL statements, and features:

• Bi-directional data-exchange across heterogeneous systems
• Direct data access across heterogeneous systems
• Data transformation for data analysis and exchange
• Relational access to legacy data and applications
• Data federation – heterogeneous data views
• Integration of mainframe files and DBMS structures
• Data federation between mainframe and Windows/Open Systems data

CDC Replication with tcVISION

tcVISION supports data exchange between mainframe-based systems like IMS/DB and DB2, between mainframe and open-systems servers like DB2 and Oracle, as well as within an open-systems environment (e.g., DB2 LUW to SQL Server or Oracle).

tcVISION’s unmatched array of CDC methods includes “Loopback Suppression” for bi-directional updates, ensuring data integrity and replication efficiency between the data sources and targets so that changes received from a source system and applied to the target are not unintentionally propagated back.

The Problems:

• Different data formats
• Different data models
• Large data volumes
• Limited batch window
• Extract programs are costly to run in a chargeback environment
• Requirement for up-to-date information

The Solution:

Moving/replicating data…

• as much as needed
• as little as possible
• as transparent as possible
• as flexible as possible
• as secure as possible
• using as little mainframe CPU as possible with tcVISION

tcVISION is a flexible data replication product that focuses on changed data from virtually any mainframe data source and transfers information between mainframe and workstations or open systems–in bulk, either through batch Changed Data Capture (CDC) or in real time. Mainframe data exchange processes are considerably simplified using tcVISION. The structure of the existing mainframe data is analyzed by special processors, and the data mapping information is presented in a user-friendly and transparent format – even for users with no mainframe knowledge–and captured in a metadata repository.

tcVISION’s unique “stage processing” architecture allows for most (and in some cases ALL) of the ETL  and CDC processing to be performed on a Windows, UNIX, or Linux platform. This is an especially attractive feature for  sites that are already at 100% utilization of their mainframe CPU, or have a chargeback system in place.

tcVISION’s Windows-based Control Board provides an easy-to-use facility to configure and administer the data flow. tcVISION provides a variety of interfaces to allow seamless integration with ETL or EAI solutions.

Case in Point: Mainframe Data Synchronization at Blum

Blum manufactures high-quality fittings systems for kitchens and home furnishings with production plants in Austria, Poland, Brazil and the USA.  Their myriad replication challenges included continuous and bi-directional data replication between headquarters and subsidiaries, uni-directional replications between the mainframe and the Oracle Data Warehouse.

The Problem:

• Phase-in of new applications required parallel processing

The Solution:

• Bidirectional, real-time synchronization of DB2 and DL/I databases across LPARs using tcVISION DBMS Extension
• Results:
• Applications can coexist indefinitely
• Projects gain needed flexibility
• Record types easily handled

To learn more about tcACCESS and tcVISION or read additional Case Studies here.