by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development / Cloud Alliance Lead at Treehouse Software, Inc.
The Business Issue
Many higher education institutions have large volumes of mission critical and historical data stored in legacy mainframe databases (Db2, Adabas, IMS, IDMS, Datacom, VSAM, etc.). The cost to maintain these databases is high and they lack the features required for modernizing the data architecture. Additionally, the data is utilized by an extensive number of interlinked programs dependent on this legacy data.
Colleges and universities are searching for a solution that allows them to unlock their mainframe data within a Cloud-based data store, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), where they can use a wide array of analytics and machine learning services for easy access to all relevant data, without compromising security or governance.
Once mainframe data is on AWS, an institution can innovate quickly by creating new functions with Cloud speed, such as mobile users via Amazon API Gateway, or voice devices such as Amazon Alexa.
Additionally, data security is one of the biggest challenges facing most higher education organizations. Beyond the certifications and best practices that are part of having data reside on the AWS Cloud platform, there are also many security features and services designed to help an organization stay compliant with industry best practices and regulations.
The Solution: Mainframe-to-Cloud Data Replication
Treehouse Software recently helped a large university with a requirement for a solution that allows their legacy mainframe database to continue while replicating data in real time on AWS. By using Treehouse Software’s tcVISION Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication product, the university was able to immediately utilize some of the most advanced Cloud tools and services in the world.
tcVISION enables the university to synchronize mainframe data to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. Furthermore, bi-directional, real-time data synchronization will enable changes on either platform to be reflected on the other platform (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table is reflected back on the mainframe database). This allows the university to modernize the application on PostgreSQL without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system, and modern tools can now be used in the PostgreSQL environment, greatly enhancing business agility.
Moving Forward…
Having on-demand, Cloud-based services available can now help IT teams build secure environments for mission-critical applications for the University, freeing them to focus on student success and plan for growth or increased seasonal demand.
tcVISION provides the quality of service required by enterprise data workloads for security, availability, and scalability, and university staff and students can look forward to quickly and affordably accessing Cloud compute, storage, and application services.
Replicating mainframe data on the Cloud can happen within days during a tcVISION Proof of Concept (POC)…
An online tcVISION POC is approximately 5-10 business days, with the customer providing use case and goals for the POC. A Treehouse Software consultant will assist in downloading and installing tcVISION and conducting a limited-scope implementation of a tcVISION application. This application uses customer data and executes on customer facilities, usually in a non-production environment. A document is provided beforehand that outlines the requirements and agenda for the POC.
By the end of the 10-day POC, customers can begin replicating mainframe data to their Cloud target database. It can happen that fast!
Further Reading…
Treehouse Software is an AWS technology partner, and the AWS Partner Network published a blog about tcVISION, our Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication product, which describes how tcVISION allows legacy mainframe environments to continue, while replicating data on highly available and secure Cloud platforms:
Contact Treehouse Software for a tcVISION Demo Today…
Simply fill out our Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will be contacting you to set up a time for your requested demonstration.
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