Try the no-risk approach to testing out mainframe data replication on the Cloud with a tcVISION Proof of Concept

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development / Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Many Treehouse Software customers have discovered that they can save weeks, or months in their mainframe modernization initiatives by doing a tcVISION Proof of Concept (POC) for Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication. Depending on the complexity of the customer’s project, a tcVISION POC generally lasts as little as 10 business days after the product is installed and all connectivity is set up between the mainframe and Cloud environments. Treehouse Software provides documentation beforehand that outlines all of the requirements and agenda for the POC, and Treehouse technicians assist in downloading and installing tcVISION.

The customer provides a representative subset of z/OS or z/VSE mainframe data (e.g., Db2, Adabas, VSAM, IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA DATACOM, etc.), use case, and goals for the POC, and the Treehouse team mentors the customer’s technical team via remote screen sharing sessions. The application is executed on customer facilities, in a non-production environment, and a limited-scope implementation of a tcVISION application is conducted to prove that the product meets the customer’s desired use case.

By the end of the POC, customers will have replicated mainframe data on their Cloud target, tested out product capabilities, and demonstrated a successful, repeatable data replication process, with documented results. After the tcVISION POC, the customer has all the connectivity and processes in place to begin setting up the production phase of their mainframe data modernization project. The minimal cost, in terms of human resources and time makes a tcVISION POC a valuable ROI in the customer’s mainframe modernization journey.

A key advantage for customers is once tcVISION is up and running, their legacy mainframe environment can continue as long as needed, while they replicate data – in real time and bi-directionally – on the new Cloud platform. Now the enterprise can quickly take advantage of the latest Cloud services, such as analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), etc., as well as move data to a variety of highly available and secure databases and data stores.

About tcVISION…

Many Cloud and Systems Integration partners are recommending tcVISION from Treehouse Software for Mainframe-to-Cloud modernization projects. tcVISION focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources and Cloud targets. Through an innovative technology, changes occurring in any mainframe application data are tracked and captured, and then published to a variety of RDBMS and other targets.

Additionally, tcVISION utilizes a Windows-based GUI Control Board, which is ideal for non-mainframe programmers. While mainframe experts are required in the design/architecture phase during the POC and occasionally during implementation, the requirement for their involvement is limited. The tcVISION Control Board acts as a single point of administration, data modeling and mapping, script generation, and monitoring. Comprehensive monitoring and logging of all data movements ensure transparency across all data exchange processes.

Further reading…

Treehouse Software is an AWS Technology Partner and tcVISION is a Validated AWS Qualified Software. The AWS Partner Network published a blog about tcVISION, which describes how tcVISION allows legacy mainframe environments to continue, while replicating data on highly available and secure AWS targets.

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Contact Treehouse Software for a tcVISION Demo Today…

Simply fill out our tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will be contacting you to set up a time for your requested demonstration.

Treehouse Software Customer Success: BMF uses tcVISION for Real-Time Data Replication Between Mainframe Adabas and PostgreSQL

The Bundesministerium der Finanzen (BMF) is Germany’s Ministry of Finance and establishes sustainable fiscal policy that ensures financial empowerment of the federal budget. From tax policy via development of federal budget, to regulation of national and international financial markets – for these and other fiscal and economic questions of principle, the BMF creates strategies and concepts, and implements them. The Federal Tax Administration is part of BMF, and controls not only the cross-border goods traffic, but acts against illegal employment and other crimes. The tax administration also imposes consumer taxes (e.g., energy and tobacco tax, car tax, etc.). Financial relations between federation, countries, and communities are also coordinated by BMF.

Department II (federal budget) is part of the German government in charge of establishing the budget and financial planning of the federation. Throughout the year, it monitors execution of the budget for eventual intervention (e.g., with a budget freeze, or supplementary budget). After closing the fiscal year, the budget and balance sheet will be presented. The budget is a supplement of the budget act, legally binding.

The central service organization of BMF is the Informationstechnikzentrum Bund – ITZBund (Information technic center).

BUSINESS BACKGROUND

Drawing up the budget is a yearly, highly time consuming, and formalized business process. All departments are involved in nearly every sub-process, and budgeting and financial planning is supported by the application, “Haushaltsaufstellung / Budgetgeneration”. Using the generated reports, various addressees/receivers are supported (e.g., German Federal Government, German Federal Parliament, Federal Council of Germany, finance department in BMF, the employees in the departments, and the public).

Technically, the budget plan of the federation is based on technologies, including the IBM Mainframe with z/OS running Adabas and Natural.

The challenge was to provide an environment for employees in all departments that enables them to do their work quickly, easily, and efficiently. In the BMF, users must have an editorless, end-user driven, and real-time creation of ready-to-print products. An informative description of the workflow is shown on the website of the BMF.

The federal budget is available as download, or one can directly navigate through the data using the online application.

BUSINESS ISSUE

Some time ago, BMF decided to re-engineer the application for budget planning and port it to Open Source. To guarantee a seamless transition, the first step is propagation of data out of Adabas on z/OS to PostgreSQL, concluding with permanent synchronization.

The difficulties of this task are the complexities of setting up data definitions for the data structures in Natural and the propagation of data from Adabas on z/OS to PostgreSQL.

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION: tcVISION

After an analysis of the project, Treehouse Software proposed creating an extension to tcVISION’s change data capture (CDC) functionality for integration, so that tcVISION could enable BMF to continue using the implemented data definitions in a format suitable for the RDBMS.

The extension was developed within a few days, and a two-day on premise test demonstrated the solution fit the requirements of BMF.

BMF can now provide its data definitions from Natural LDA to the extension of tcVISION, and after the transformation, onto the PostgreSQL load process for processing. Another advantage of the tcVISION solution is that when needed, other targets can be integrated for propagation of data from the mainframe (e.g., Kafka, which BMF indicated is a future target environment).

Additionally, bi-directional propagation can be added in budget planning when BMF is ready.

Data structures are held in LDA, because this provides the advantages of higher flexibility in development and the adaption of new requirements to the data definitions. If definitions would have to be ported manually, in part, to PostgreSQL, it would have been a much bigger and error-prone effort.

Subsequent changes to Adabas structures can now use tcVISION’s newly developed extension to easily regenerate and load the correct definitions to the RDBMS, and tcVISION completely covers the customer’s requirements for special usage of *PEs and *MUs.

After thorough preparation and extensive testing, the solution was released to selected users first, then made available to all users.

* PEs and MUs are special Adabas formats for definition of tables. PE = Periodic Group, MU = Multiple Value Field.

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Contact Treehouse Software for a Demo Today…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the cloud, open systems, or any LUW target – tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

Just fill out the Treehouse Software Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

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Further reading: Treehouse Software Customer Success – ETS: tcVISION for Real-Time Synchronization Between Mainframe IDMS and AWS RDS for PostgreSQL

Some are calling mainframes “dinosaurs”, but many of us see that as a good comparison!

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Since the dinosaur analogy has been used so much to describe mainframe computer systems in recent years, I would like to use this blog to take a look at the parallels of dinosaurs and mainframes as it relates to the current buzz about modernization on the Cloud.

Of course, dinosaurs and mainframes have been around for a long time and are extremely resilient and successful. I especially say “are” in relation to dinosaurs, because many are not extinct at all, and the fossil record shows that several types have adapted to the changing world by evolving into birds. Additionally, during the age of dinosaurs, they branched off into countless varieties during a span of about 165 million years – hardly a failed species. Also, like the dinosaurs, the mainframe has thrived and survived for over six decades and is continuing to adapt – albeit not nearly as long as the reign of the dinosaurs, but an impressive run, nonetheless.

And the mainframe isn’t finished yet! Mainframe systems are still very much in use, running major banking processes, healthcare systems, government IT services, and critical business operations of many Global 2000 companies. As a matter of fact, IBM has been reporting growth year after year, as the IBM Z platform continues to see important innovations, such as with Cloud-native development capabilities, as well as impressive improvements in processing power.

Looking up and moving forward…

As with the dinosaurs who did not fear looking to the clouds and taking wing to ensure survival, the new breed of mainframers envision bold and exciting possibilities in Cloud computing. Many see remarkable opportunities for business advantage by modernizing their mainframe environments. This modernization includes replicating mainframe data on Cloud platforms in order to quickly capitalize on the latest Cloud services, such as analytics, auto scaling, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), high availability, advanced security, etc., or to move data to a variety of newer Cloud databases, streaming services, container services, and much more. With the proper data replication technology and planning, all of this modernization can occur while keeping the legacy mainframe environment active as long as it is needed!

The IBM Z mainframe isn’t going anywhere, and with visionary and daring leadership, it can continue to evolve and adapt to whatever develops in the Cloud… and beyond.

Ready to move forward, adapt, and evolve? Treehouse Software is here to help!

Treehouse Software is your partner on your journey into future mainframe modernization plans. With our “data first” approach, we can help accelerate digital transformation and successfully leverage Cloud and Hybrid Cloud initiatives on the IBM Z platform, storing sensitive data on a private Cloud or local data center, and simultaneously leveraging leading technologies on a managed public Cloud.

Through an innovative changed data capture (CDC) technology, our tcVISION product tracks and captures changes occurring in any mainframe application data, and then publishes them to a variety of Cloud targets. The customer moves only the right data to the right place at the right time – as much, or as little as they want.

The tcVISION data replication solution has a modular design, which enables it to support mass data load from one source to one or more targets, as well as continuous data exchange processes in real-time via CDC. This modular architecture and the provided APIs gives customers unlimited future potential for continued evolution, and use of new and emerging technologies.

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Want to see tcVISION in action?

You can schedule a live, online demonstration that shows tcVISION replicating data from the mainframe to a Cloud target database. Just fill out the Treehouse Software tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your tcVISION Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication demonstration.

Should You Stay, or Should You Go? You Can Do Both by Incrementally Replicating Your Mainframe Data on the Cloud While Keeping Both Sides Synchronized

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Many of Treehouse Software’s enterprise customers are not close to considering the retirement of their mainframe systems, but instead have long-term data replication projects, or want to indefinitely have their legacy systems co-exist with a new Cloud platform. These organizations are looking for solutions that allow their legacy mainframe environment to continue while replicating data – in real time and bi-directionally – to take advantage of the latest Cloud services, such as analytics, auto scaling, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), high availability, advanced security, etc., or move data to a variety of newer Cloud databases, streaming services, container services, and more.

The Transition Doesn’t Have to be a Sudden Big Bang

Much of an enterprise’s mission critical mainframe data is stored in legacy mainframe databases, and the cost to maintain these databases is high.  An added complication is that the data is utilized by many interlinked and dependent programs that have been in place for many years, and sometimes decades. Unlocking the value of this legacy data is also difficult due to many very different types of mainframe databases (e.g., Db2, Adabas, CA Datacom, CA IDMS, etc.).

Immediate data replication on the Cloud is enabling government, healthcare, supply chain, financial, and a variety of public service organizations to meet spikes in demand for vital information, especially in times of crisis. The globalization of markets, increase of data volumes, 24×7 operations, changing business conditions, and high demand for up-to-date information also requires new data transfer and exchange solutions for heterogeneous IT architectures.

The Data-First Solution

Treehouse Software is here to help enterprise mainframe customers accelerate digital transformation and successfully leverage Hybrid Cloud initiatives on the IBM Z platform, storing sensitive data on a private Cloud or local data center and simultaneously leveraging leading technologies on a managed public Cloud. Our tcVISION replication solution focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources and modern databases and applications. Through an innovative technology, changes occurring in any mainframe application data are tracked and captured, and then published to a variety of targets. The customer moves only the right data to the right place at the right time – as much, or as little as they want.

The tcVISION replication solution has a modular design, which enables it to support mass data load from one source to one or more targets, as well as continuous data exchange processes in realtime via CDC. This modular architecture and the provided APIs gives customers unlimited potential for growth and use of new technologies.

tcVISION allows bi-directional, real-time data synchronization of changes on either platform to be reflected on the other platform (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table is reflected back on mainframe). The customer can then modernize their application on the cloud, open systems, etc. without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system.

In the following example high level architecture diagram, bi-directional data replication between Db2 z/OS and AWS using tcVISION is shown:

tcVISION utilizes a Windows-based GUI Control Board, which is ideal for non-mainframe programmers.  While mainframe experts are required in the design/architecture phase and occasionally during implementation, the requirement for their involvement is limited. The tcVISION Control Board acts as a single point of administration, data modeling and mapping, script generation, and monitoring. Comprehensive monitoring and logging of all data movements ensure transparency across all data exchange processes. In the following example, the mainframe can be seen communicating to an Amazon EC2-based tcVISION replication manager. The tcVISION Control Board shows the user a graphical representation of this replication:

Additionally, tcVISION supports complex data replication scenarios between multiple data sources and targets, as seen here:

With tcVISION, data replication projects can be implemented within a few of months, depending on the complexity of the project.  This includes the proof of concept and design/architecture stages.  After these stages are complete, the customer can start the first production implementation sprint, immediately providing business value.  We suggest successive agile sprints to allow for incremental deployment of additional file replication, sprint by sprint.

Supported Sources and Targets

tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data replication for Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems application modernization projects.

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Contact Treehouse Software for a tcVISION Demo Today…

Just fill out the Treehouse Software tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your tcVISION demonstration. This will be a live, on-line demonstration that shows tcVISION replicating data from the mainframe to a Cloud target database.

Download the AWS and Treehouse Software Mainframe Data Replication Solution Brief

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Treehouse Software’s tcVISION data replication product provides connectivity between your mainframe and AWS, putting some of the world’s most advanced technologies at your fingertips. tcVISION is an innovative technology that provides real-time and bi-directional data replication between the mainframe and many AWS targets, including Amazon RDS Aurora, Amazon RDS PostgreSQL, Amazon RDS MySQL/MariaDB, Amazon RDS Oracle, Amazon RDS SQL Server, Amazon S3, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Redshift, and more. By working with Treehouse Software and using AWS solutions, tools, programs, and databases, you can save time and automate processes. View and download the AWS tcVISION Solution Brief here.

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Contact Treehouse Software for a tcVISION Demo Today…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, open systems, or any LUW target –tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

Just fill out the Treehouse Software Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

Let’s Go Shopping – Treehouse Software’s Grocery List for Customers Who are Planning Mainframe Data Replication on AWS

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

When we begin working with customers who have chosen Treehouse Software’s tcVISION mainframe data replication tool to synch data on AWS, many are just beginning to explore AWS. Some customers haven’t even chosen their desired target database(s) or service(s) yet. This blog focuses on helping customers identify the most popular tools and services needed when planning a Mainframe-to-AWS data replication project.

tcVISION‘s data replication connectivity to AWS puts some of the world’s most advanced technologies at customers’ fingertips. On the Mainframe side, the customers’ familiar on-premises environment with their mission critical data resides on various databases, such as IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, Software AG Adabas, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, or flat files. On the AWS side, there are over 200 fully featured Cloud-based products, including compute, storage, databases, analytics, networking, mobile, developer tools, management tools, IoT, security, and enterprise applications.  How can customers choose what’s right for them?

It’s like a big, virtual grocery store…

As we all know, in a grocery store there are many items that appear to do the same thing, but closer inspection shows that certain products can meet specific needs. Here is a list of some of the most popular AWS products and services that we have seen our customers explore and implement for their mainframe data modernization projects:

Amazon EC2 – Amazon EC2’s simple web service interface allows you to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your computing resources and lets you run on Amazon’s proven computing environment. Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change. Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use. Amazon EC2 provides developers the tools to build failure resilient applications and isolate them from common failure scenarios.

Amazon RDS – Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the Cloud. It provides cost-efficient and resizable capacity while automating time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backups. It frees you to focus on your applications so you can give them the fast performance, high availability, security and compatibility they need. Amazon RDS is available on several database instance types – optimized for memory, performance or I/O – and provides you with six familiar database engines from which to choose, including Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and SQL Server.

Amazon S3 – Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. This means customers of all sizes and industries can use it to store and protect any amount of data for a range of use cases, such as websites, mobile applications, backup and restore, archive, enterprise applications, IoT devices, and big data analytics.

Amazon S3 Bucket – An Amazon S3 Bucket is a resource that the user creates in an Amazon region, in which to upload data (photos, videos, documents, etc.).

Amazon CloudWatch – Amazon CloudWatch is a powerful Cloud infrastructure monitoring service that gives developers, system operators, site reliability engineers (SRE), and IT managers actionable insights to monitor applications, understand and respond to system-wide performance changes, optimize resource utilization, and obtain a unified view of operational health. Given the dynamic nature of AWS resources, proactive measures including the dynamic re-sizing of infrastructure resources can be automatically initiated. Amazon CloudWatch alarms can be sent to the customer, such as a warning that CPU usage is too high, and as a result, an auto scale trigger can be set up to launch another EC2 instance to address the load. Additionally, customers can set alarms to recover, reboot, or shut down EC2 instances if something out of the ordinary happens.

AWS Direct Connect – AWS Direct Connect is a Cloud service solution that makes it easy to establish a dedicated, secure network connection from your on-premises computing environment to AWS. While in transit, your network traffic remains on the AWS global network and never touches the public internet.

Amazon Kinesis – Amazon Kinesis makes it easy to collect, process, and analyze real-time, streaming data so you can get timely insights and react quickly to new information. Amazon Kinesis offers key capabilities to cost-effectively process streaming data at any scale, along with the flexibility to choose the tools that best suit the requirements of your application. With Amazon Kinesis, you can ingest real-time data such as video, audio, application logs, website clickstreams, and IoT telemetry data for machine learning, analytics, and other applications. Amazon Kinesis enables you to process and analyze data as it arrives and respond instantly instead of having to wait until all your data is collected before the processing can begin.

AWS Lambda – AWS Lambda is an event-driven, “serverless” computing platform provided by Amazon as a part of the Amazon Web Services. It is a computing service that runs code in response to events and automatically manages the computing resources required by that code.

AWS Machine Learning – AWS Machine Learning Services offer the broadest and deepest set of machine learning services and supporting Cloud infrastructure, putting machine learning in the hands of every developer, data scientist and expert practitioner.

Amazon Redshift – Amazon Redshift is a popular and fastest growing Cloud data warehouse allowing customers to run and scale analytics in seconds on all of their data without having to manage a data warehouse infrastructure.

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Video: tcVISION Mainframe-to-AWS data replication

tcVISION focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources and modern databases and applications. Through an innovative technology, changes occurring in any mainframe application data are tracked and captured, and then published on a variety of AWS targets. The product provides mainframe customers bi-directional, real-time data synchronization of changes on either platform to be reflected on the other platform (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table is reflected back on mainframe). The customer can then modernize their application on AWS without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system.

Treehouse Software was recently invited by AWS mainframe modernization technical teams to do a presentation and demonstration of tcVISION, our innovative Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication software product.

In this video, an introductory overview to Treehouse Software’s tcVISION is shown, along with a live demonstration of mainframe data replication on AWS RDS for PostgreSQL:

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Contact Treehouse Software for a Demo Today…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, open systems, or any LUW target –tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

Just fill out the Treehouse Software Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

Video: Mainframe-to-AWS Data Replication with tcVISION from Treehouse Software

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Treehouse Software was recently invited by AWS mainframe modernization technical teams to do a presentation and demonstration of tcVISION, our innovative Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication software product.

In this video, Chris Rudolph, Treehouse Software’s tcVISION Product Manager shows an overview of the product, then demonstrates replication of mainframe data on AWS RDS for PostgreSQL:

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Contact Treehouse Software Today for a tcVISION Demonstration…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, Open Systems, or any LUW target – tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

If interested in more information, please contact customer sales at +1.724.759.7070, email us at sales@treehouse.com, or fill out the Treehouse Software Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

Mainframe VSAM Change Data Capture (CDC) to Cloud and Open Systems with tcVISION from Treehouse Software

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and AWS and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the innovative software product that allows immediate data replication between an impressive array of Mainframe sources and Cloud and Open Systems targets. This blog focuses on tcVISION‘s support of VSAM mainframe data sources (batch and CICS on z/OS, and CICS on z/OS and z/VSE).

tcVISION performs VSAM Change Data Capture (CDC) either via its own “DBMS-Extensions”, or via IBM’s CICS VR product. tcVISION has separate DBMS-Extensions to capture changes from CICS (using the CICS External Interface) and batch (via a JCL wrapper). All captured changes, regardless of whether they are performed by tcVISION or CICS VR are written to the z/OS Logstream on the mainframe. tcVISION then reads the Logstream and transfers the transactions to a tcVISION server running in the Cloud or on-prem, which is responsible for queueing, transforming, and applying the captured changes to the specified target.

Additionally, when planning VSAM CDC there are a number of operational items to consider, such as volume of batch transactions, data changes that occur during periods of time while the VSAM file is offline, etc.

In this instructional video, tcVISION is shown capturing changes from VSAM on z/OS and writing them to SQL Server on Windows:

 

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Contact Treehouse Software Today for a tcVISION Demonstration…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, Open Systems, or any LUW target – tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

Just fill out the Treehouse Software Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

How to Replicate Mainframe Data to a Big Data Environment via Kafka with tcVISION

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and AWS and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

tcVISION from Treehouse Software allows enterprise customers to replicate data between mainframe, Cloud, or Hybrid Cloud while maintaining their legacy environments, and one of the more popular targets for mainframe modernization that we have been seeing is Apache Kafka^®.

What is Kafka? 

Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications. A data pipeline processes and moves data from one system to another, and a streaming application is an application that consumes streams of data.

Kafka is reliable, stable, flexible, robust, and scales well with numerous consumers, working seamlessly with most popular data warehouses and data lakes like Hadoop, Redshift, S3, BigQuery, Azure, etc. Kafka can also be used for real-time analytics, as well as to process real-time streams to collect Big Data.

See how tcVISION easily connects mainframe systems to Kafka…

Kafka handles massive volumes of data and remains responsive, making Kafka a preferred platform when the volume of the data at the mainframe level –> BIG.

Kafka is a supported target in tcVISION, and in this instructional video, tcVISION is shown synchronizing data in real-time from Db2 on z/OS via Kafka to a Big Data environment:

Additional Reading: Treehouse Software is a Confluent technology partner and we recently co-authored a blog entitled, “Enterprise Mainframe Change Data Capture (CDC) to Apache Kafka with tcVISION and Confluent”.

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Contact Treehouse Software Today…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, Open Systems, or any LUW target – tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

Just fill out the Treehouse Software Product Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

New Faces at Treehouse Software

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Treehouse Software is growing and on the move! We are proud to have many staff members who have been here for 20+ years, and we have recently brought on several experienced business, mainframe, and Cloud experts. Meet our newest team members:

John Szakach, Chief Operating Officer

John joined Treehouse as a Business Strategy Consultant and in 2021 was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. While new to Treehouse, John brings over 40 years of relevant work experience to the organization and is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner as well as a Certified Project Management Professional. John has held a variety of management roles in different industries including VP of Organizational Effectiveness, VP of Quality Assurance, and VP of New Product Development. He has also held positions as Director of Flight Standards and Quality Control, and Director of Operations. In addition to over 51 years of total flight experience, including 20 years as a pilot for United Airlines, he has received numerous awards including the United Airlines Captain of the Year and the FAA Master Pilot Award, the FAA’s highest award for safety and compliance. John has a Bachelor’s Degree in aviation management.

Dan Miley, Product Support

Dan is a software engineer with deep experience and understanding of IBM Assembler, COBOL, JCL, IDMS, SAP ECC. He has worked with some of the world’s largest organizations, including president/consultant of his own company for over 10 years. Dan has already been instrumental in landing some major mainframe-to-Cloud data modernization customers for Treehouse Software.

Sasha Efron, Senior Technical Representative

Sasha is a mainframe technical specialist and DBA with over 25 years experience in in systems analysis, design, development, enhancement, testing, implementation and maintenance in insurance and banking systems with specialization in Software AG and IBM Mainframe technologies. He also has been involved in legacy modernization projects for several worldwide companies.

Joseph Rogan, Senior Technical Representative

Joseph is a Senior Technology Leader with 30+ years experience working in multiple industries, including transportation (specifically rail), logistics, education, financial services (banking, re-insurance, and trading systems), commercial insurance, and state government. His core competencies include database design and implementation, OLTP, OLAP, and data warehouse design, project planning, and project management. Joseph is also a highly trusted, conceptual, business partner and leader with excellent presentation, negotiating, management, mentoring, and strategic planning skills.

Daniel Vimont, Senior Technical Representative

Daniel brings 30+ years experience in multiple computer languages, databases, frameworks, and distributed processing for mainframe, Cloud, and open systems. He is very familiar with the principles of ETL and CDC in mainframe data transformation and migration. Dan is a Certified AWS Cloud Practitioner and has experience in designing and developing AWS/SDK (boto3) framework for on-premises invocation/monitoring of AWS services. Additionally, Dan’s versatile background as a data and software engineer, educator, and business advisor is a valuable asset to Treehouse’s vision of being a close partner in our customers’ planning and modernization efforts.

Treehouse Software Experts are Our Best Assets

When asked by prospective customers, “What are your primary differentiators?”, we immediately point to our people who have decades worth of experience in helping mainframe customers with innovative tools, services, and training. Our extensive experience, deep knowledge, and wide-ranging capabilities in mainframe technologies make the company a valued partner for third-party solution providers and a trusted advisor to customers.

We are fortunate to have a staff with a wealth of knowledge and skills that span not only Mainframe, but Cloud, LUW, and Open Systems technologies. Treehouse Software‘s technicians have installed products and trained end-users in some of the largest mainframe sites around the world, and our highly-rated 24X7 technical support is second to none.

The Treehouse Team Approach

Treehouse Software’s expert staff has proven its ability to work effectively as part of a larger team to meet clients’ complex business goals. AWS, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Deloitte, Accenture, Confluent, and other large vendors have selected our expertise, technology, services, and training for their mainframe data modernization practices.

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Contact Treehouse Software Today…

Treehouse Software has been helping enterprises mainframe customers since 1982, and in recent years, we have been developing a strong presence in the Cloud market space relating to mainframe data replication and modernization. As a result, Treehouse Software is currently working with technical and sales leaders from all popular Cloud platform companies and major systems integrators to take advantage of our deep mainframe skills and our tcVISION Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication solution.

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, Open Systems, or any LUW target –Treehouse Software is here to help. Contact us to discuss your needs.