Starting a Mainframe Data Replication Project? Consider Your Use Cases Carefully

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

Planning for Real-time and Bi-directional Mainframe Data Replication with tcVISION

A customer’s mainframe data may be utilized by many interlinked and dependent programs that have been in place for several years, and sometimes, decades, so unlocking the value of this legacy data can be difficult. Therefore, careful planning must occur for a mainframe data modernization project, beginning with identifying uses cases for the project and a Proof of Concept (POC) of data replication software, such as tcVISION, the Mainframe-to-Hybrid Cloud and Open Systems data replication product from Treehouse Software.

This blog serves as a general guide for organizations planning to replicate their mainframe data on Cloud and/or Open Systems platforms using tcVISION.

Questions and Considerations for Your Use Cases

A general principle should be to prove out the data replication technology (tcVISION) by using identified use cases. Listed below are some examples of questions and use cases to assist customers in planning and experiencing successful Mainframe-to-Cloud and/or Open Systems data replication projects:

• What is/are the mainframe source database(s)? Obvious, yes, but the software solution vendor and outside consultants need this information.
• What are the critical issues you need to test? Are there any areas that you believe that would be challenging for the vendor? Examples would be specific transformations, data types (e.g., BLOB), required CDC SLAs, field/column changes, specific security requirements, data volume requirements, etc. Document all of the critical test items.
• Select the minimal set of files (generally 3-10) with representative conditions that will enable you to test all of your critical items. If there are multiple source databases, ensure specific test use cases are defined for each source.
• What are the target databases? Will you be replicating to a Cloud database manager, such as AWS RDS? Are there additional requirements to replicate to S3, Azure BLOB, GCP Cloud Storage, Kinesis, and Kafka? What needs to be tested?
• What are your bulk or initial load requirements? tcVISION can load data directly from mainframe databases, mainframe unloads, or image copies. What are the data volumes? Do you have sufficient bandwidth between your mainframe manager and on-premises or Cloud VM to handle your volume requirements?
• What are your Change Data Capture (CDC) requirements?
• Do you have plans for bi-directional replication in the future. What are your specific requirements? Since bi-directional replication can be complex and greatly lengthen a modernization project, the customer generally will perform one bi-directional use case for conceptual proof. Will this suffice for your organization?
• What are your specific high availability requirements? Can they be handled by a technical discussion, or is a specific use case required?
• What are your general security requirements for data at rest and data in transit? Do you have any specific security regulations to follow, such as HIPPA or FIPS? What are your PII / data masking requirements?
• What are your schema requirements? For example, tcVISION creates a default schema based on your input mainframe data. Major changes to the default schema usually require a staging database.
• Do you have staff available to perform the required tasks for the project? For example, for the length of a tcVISION POC you will need part-time staff, 2-4 hours per day. A part-time mainframe administrator will generally require 2-8 elapsed hours. Other staff will include Windows/Linux/Cloud administrators. 2-4 hours of project management may also be required.
• Are business data transformations required? tcVISION handles minor transformation via point and click (e.g., date format transformations). Major transformations can require C++ or product scripting.
• Are there any triggers or stored procedures? tcVISION performs CDC replication processing using a database that utilizes these database features.

Of course, each project will have unique environments, goals, and desired use cases. It is important that specific use cases are determined and documented prior to the start of a project and a tcVISION POC. This planning will allow the Treehouse Software team and the customer develop a more accurate project timeline, have the required resources available, and realize a successful project. 

More About tcVISION from Treehouse Software…

tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data migration for mainframe application modernization projects. This innovative technology offers comprehensive abilities to identify and capture changes occurring in mainframe and relational databases, then publish the required information to an impressive variety of targets, both Cloud and on-premises.

tcVISION acquires data in bulk or via CDC methods from virtually any IBM mainframe data source (Software AG Adabas, IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, and sequential files), and transform and deliver to a wide array of Cloud and Open Systems targets, including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Confluent, Kafka, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc. In addition, tcVISION can extract and replicate data from a variety of non-mainframe sources, including Adabas LUW, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Db2 LUW and Db2 BLU, IBM Informix, and PostgreSQL.

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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.

What’s Your Mix?

Real-time and Bi-directional Data Replication Between Mainframes and Virtually Any Target

tcVISION from Treehouse Software — Enterprise ETL and Real-Time Data Replication Through Change Data Capture (CDC)

Planning a data replication project between Mainframe, Cloud, and Open Systems platforms? tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data migration for mainframe application modernization projects. This innovative technology offers comprehensive abilities to identify and capture changes occurring in mainframe and relational databases, then publish the required information to an impressive variety of targets, both Cloud and on-premises.

tcVISION acquires data in bulk or via CDC methods from virtually any IBM mainframe data source (Software AG Adabas, IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, and sequential files), and transform and deliver to a wide array of Cloud and Open Systems targets, including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Confluent, Kafka, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc. In addition, tcVISION can extract and replicate data from a variety of non-mainframe sources, including Adabas LUW, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Db2 LUW and Db2 BLU, IBM Informix and PostgreSQL.

Whatever your mix, Treehouse Software has got it covered with tcVISION.

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Moving the right data to the right place at the right time

Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tcVISION, or contact us to discuss your needs.

Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems Data Replication: tcVISION in 90 Seconds

Give us 90 seconds of your time, and we’ll quickly show you how tcVISION enables real-time and bi-directional Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems data replication. Our video walk-through shows how tcVISION‘s GUI interface allows users to easily model and map data, and create links between data sources and target systems. tcVISION‘s intuitive interface supports simple to complex replication scenarios.

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Find out more about tcVISION — Enterprise ETL and Real-Time Data Replication Through Change Data Capture

tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data migration for mainframe application modernization projects and enabling bi-directional data replication between mainframe, Cloud, Linux, Unix and Windows platforms. This innovative technology offers comprehensive abilities to identify and capture changes occurring in mainframe and relational databases, then publish the required information to an impressive variety of targets, both on-premise and Cloud-based.

tcVISION acquires data in bulk or via change data capture methods, including in real time, from virtually any IBM mainframe data source (Software AG Adabas, IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, even sequential files), and transform and deliver to virtually any target. In addition, the same product can extract and replicate data from a variety of non-mainframe sources, including Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, Adabas LUW, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Db2 LUW and Db2 BLU, and IBM Informix.

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Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tcVISION, or contact us to discuss your needs.

tcVISION and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – A Winning Combination

Why use tcVISION with AWS?

IBM mainframes are in use today at many of the world’s largest corporations.  They often contain key, mission critical data that is often difficult to exploit with the latest technologies, due to the proprietary nature and data formats of their databases.  tcVISION changes this and allows your corporation to exploit this data with the power of the world’s leading cloud platform – AWS.

tcVISION is a software tool that enables data replication between legacy mainframe, cloud, and open systems environments.  Its mainframe database support scope is broad and it supports the key legacy mainframe databases in use today. tcVISION has the intelligence to convert the proprietary data formats of Adabas, Datacom, IDMS, VSAM, IMS, and Db2 using data wizards specific to each database.  Its intelligence handles the required transformations, including EBCDIC to ASCII, endianness, copybooks to columns, embedded dependencies transforming these proprietary formats to databases such as Hadoop, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Aurora, and MySQL.

tcVISION has ETL bulk load functionality and uses native change data capture (CDC) mechanisms, keeping the data between mainframe databases and modern databases in constant real time synchronization.  Its support of bi-directional replication allows changes to be captured and updated in two different environments, including modern databases.  tcVISION is a powerful tool for data and application modernization, allowing legacy mainframe teams to continue their work while modern teams use leading edge technology on the same data.  It enables modern data warehouses and databases to have access to key corporate data residing on legacy systems.

While tcVISION can be utilized in your corporate datacenter, using tcVISION with AWS has several key advantages:

• Rapid global deployments to 18 key geographic regions
• Database as a Service– Relational Database Instances (for Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, MariaDB, and Aurora) greatly simplifying administration
• Powerful, low cost, highly available databases, such as Aurora
• Extreme high availability using availability zones
• Numerous infrastructure options to optimize the environment and enhance performance
• Bursting capabilities to accommodate peak loads
• Controlling costs through infrastructure optimization
• Moving capital expense to operational expenses
• Extreme security at every layer, maintained by world class security experts

“Security, scalability, resiliency, recoverability, and cost of applications in the cloud are better than what almost any private enterprise could achieve on its own”:

https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2017/may/17/cloud-computing-goes-beyond-tipping-point-financial-services-says-dtcc/

Rapid Global Connectivity

The AWS Cloud spans 55 Availability Zones within 18 key geographic Regions around the world.  When establishing an EC2 instance (virtual Windows or Linux instance) or a Relational Database instance, the geographic region and availability zone is a parameter.  In minutes, you can establish tcVISION instances with a fully functional database instance in key global business centers, including the Americas, Europe, and Asia.   Once the data is replicated, your global customers can benefit from the low latency of the data center proximity. Global data can be synchronized using the Amazon’s high speed global network using technologies such as Cloud Front and S3 Acceleration. Whatever your company size, leveraging these capabilities allows your customer to gain low latency global access to the key corporate data residing on your IBM mainframe.

Powerful and Cost Effective “Relational Database as a Service” Instances

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.  Amazon RDS is available on several database instance types – optimized for memory, performance, or I/O – and provides you with six familiar database engines to choose from, including Amazon Aurora, Maria DB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server.

tcVISION enables you to migrate or perform real-time replication between your on-premises mainframe and Amazon RDS databases.  Your business can rapidly deploy databases globally within minutes with minimal administration requirements.

There are several advantages of a Amazon RDS databases.  One especially powerful database is AWS Aurora which can be established as either mySQL or PostgreSQL API compatible.  Your business can leverage these key advantages:

• Serverless Aurora: With serverless Aurora there is no database size pre-allocation required.  The database automatically scales up and down based on load and you pay only for the resources utilized.
• High availability: HA is built into the architecture of Aurora, with six copies of data maintained across three Availability Zones. That is two copies in each Availability Zone (data center in a region), boosting availability with minor disruption even if an entire Availability Zone is down. In addition, the database is continuously backed up to Amazon S3, so you can take advantage of the high durability of S3 (99.999999999) for your backups.
• Performance: Amazon Aurora provides 5X the throughput of MySQL and 3X the throughput of standard PostgreSQL running on the same hardware
• Manageability: Amazon Aurora simplifies administration by handling routine database tasks such as provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, failure detection, and repair.
• Storage Scaling: Aurora storage scales automatically up to 64TB per database instance, growing and rebalancing I/O across the fleet to provide consistent performance.

Scalable and high-performance

Using AWS tools, Auto Scaling, and Elastic Load Balancing, your application can scale up or down based on demand.

Unlike a traditional data center, with the AWS infrastructure environment, you pay only for what you use, and your company is charged only for resource utilization.  Users can bring up EC2 virtual Windows or Linux instances for any length of time. For example, if the mainframe database bulk loads only take an hour to complete, the tcVISION EC2 instances can be brought up for the two hours needed, and shut down when the processing is finished.  AWS EC2 instances can be dynamically stopped and restarted while retaining its data on AWS Elastic Block Storage. This way, your business pays only for what is needed and the instance sizes (CPU, memory, and I/O bandwidth) can be optimized for the required mainframe data migration. or data replication process.

AWS resources, such as EC2 instances, storage, and databases can be rapidly provisioned and de-provisioned.  The allows your corporation to approach the architecture with an agile mentality.  Once the initial design and architecture is complete, it can be rapidly tested and adjusted as required to optimize all aspects, including security, availability, performance, and operation readiness. The AWS environment allows users to experiment with various architectures and sizing.  For example, a customer can test various databases and EC2 instance sizes and types, and make changes based on test results to optimize sizing as required.

tcVISION CDC replication typically doesn’t need consistently high levels of CPU, but benefits significantly from having full access to very fast CPUs when needed. For example, there are significant spikes in mainframe database update activities, and tcVISION can benefit from very fast CPUs.  T2 instances are engineered specifically for these use cases.

Using AWS Auto Scaling, you maintain optimal application performance and scalability, even when workloads are periodic, unpredictable, or continuously changing.  AWS Auto Scaling continually monitors your applications to make sure they are operating at your desired performance levels.  When demand spikes, AWS Auto Scaling automatically increases the capacity of constrained resources, so you maintain a high quality of service.

Monitoring of environmental health

In traditional data center environments, vendor supplied infrastructure monitoring tools are often deployed to monitor the infrastructure environmental health.  They measure and alert on environmental factors such as CPU utilization, memory usage, network bandwidth, and disk space.

In the AWS environment, the CloudWatch environment monitoring is integrated with AWS resources such as EC2 instances and Relational Database instances. You can use Amazon CloudWatch to collect and track metrics, collect and monitor log files, set alarms, and automatically react to changes in your AWS resources. This allows you to set alerts at user specified thresholds and take proactive measures such as notifying individuals and taking automated actions on the AWS environmental resources.  Given the dynamic nature of AWS resources, proactive measures including the dynamic re-sizing of infrastructure resources can be automatically initiated.

World Class Security

The AWS environment is enabled for security at every layer.

AWS resources are contained within your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).  The Amazon VPC enables you to launch AWS resources into an isolated virtual private network that you define.  The Amazon VPC provides features that you can use to increase and monitor security, and security groups act as a firewall for associated EC2 instances, controlling the inbound and outbound traffic.  Network access control lists (ACLs) act as a firewall for associated subnets controlling inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level.  Flow logs capture information about the IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in your VPC.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) enables you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely.  You can create users in IAM, assign them individual security credentials (access, keys, passwords, and multi factor authentication devices).  You create roles in IAM and manage permissions to control which operations can be performed by the entity, or the AWS service that assumes the role.  If you already manage user identities outside of AWS, you can use an IAM identify provider instead of creating IAM users in your AWS account.  With an identity provider, you can manage your user identities outside of AWS and give these external user identities permission to use AWS resources in your account.

Data can be encrypted at rest or in transit.  Data encryption capabilities are available in AWS storage, database services such as EBS, S3 Glacier, Oracle RDS, SQL Server RDS, Redshift and many other services.  Flexible key management options, including AWS Key management Service, allows you to choose whether to have AWS manage the encryption keys or to enable you to keep complete control over the keys.

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Contact Treehouse Software Today for an Online Demonstration of Mainframe-to-AWS Cloud Data Replication

Request a tcVISION live demo, where we show tcVISION replicating data from a mainframe to AWS Aurora in the Cloud. Just fill out our demo request form, and a Treehouse representative will be in touch to schedule a convenient date and time.

Treehouse Software Sponsors June Pittsburgh Amazon Web Services (AWS) User Group Meetup

By Joseph Brady, Marketing Manager and AWS Alliance Lead for Treehouse Software

Treehouse Software sponsored the June AWS User Group Meetup at AlphaLab in Pittsburgh. AlphaLab is a nationally ranked software accelerator in Pittsburgh. They help early-stage tech companies quickly figure out the best way to build and grow in a program with funding, early-stage technology companies with an extensive mentor network, educational sessions with industry leaders, and a rich entrepreneurial work environment within a nationally ranked accelerator program.

Food, drinks, and technical presentation were courtesy of Treehouse Software. The AlphaLab space was very nice and spacious, with a full kitchen and a large bar for everybody to hang out and talk while enjoying a great spread of food and drinks. This was an ideal setting for ice-breaking and socializing with attendees.

As is usual for the AWS User Group, the attendees ranged from students to consultants and DBAs, all wanting to learn about what can be done on the AWS Cloud.

After some food, drinks, and a bit of socializing, Jim Jen, Executive Director of AlphaLab started things off with a short AlphaLab welcome and introduction.

Next, Andy Jones, Senior Technical Representative for Treehouse Software presented “tcVISION Technical Overview and AWS Cloud Environment Replication Demonstration”. Andy told a little about Treehouse, our AWS partnership, and an overview of tcVISION with a mention of the tcVISION Amazon Machine Image (AMI) development work that is going on right now with support from a top AWS Solutions Architect. At the end of Andy’s presentation, interest was sufficient for him to give a tcVISION live demo, where he showed everybody tcVISION replicating data from the Treehouse mainframe to AWS Aurora in the Cloud.

Typical Treehouse Mainframe-to-AWS data replication scenario in a demo:

We ended the evening with a little more eating, drinking, and socializing, and a mention that Treehouse Software will be exhibiting the tcVISION/AWS Solution at AWS re:Invent in November.

Thanks to everyone who attended, helped, and participated!

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Find out more about tcVISION — Enterprise ETL and Real-Time Data Replication Through Change Data Capture

tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data migration for mainframe application modernization projects and enabling bi-directional data replication between mainframe, Linux, Unix and Windows platforms. This innovative technology offers comprehensive abilities to identify and capture changes occurring in mainframe and relational databases, then publish the required information to an impressive variety of targets, both on-premise and Cloud-based.

tcVISION acquires data in bulk or via change data capture methods, including in real time, from virtually any IBM mainframe data source (Software AG Adabas, IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, even sequential files), and transform and deliver to virtually any target. In addition, the same product can extract and replicate data to/from a variety of non-mainframe sources, including AWS, PostgreSQL, Adabas LUW, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Db2 LUW and Db2 BLU, and IBM Informix.

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Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tcVISION, or contact us to discuss your needs.

 

 

Treehouse Software Collaborates with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Offer Comprehensive Enterprise Mainframe-to-AWS Data Replication

Press Contact: Joe Brady (+1.724.759.7070 x110; jbrady@treehouse.com)

Pittsburgh, PA; Treehouse Software, Inc., of Sewickley, PA is pleased to announce an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer enterprise customers a complete Mainframe-to-AWS data replication solution to provide them with fast and easy access to the cloud.

Treehouse Software’s tcVISION is a powerful and mature software product designed for real-time, bi-directional replication of mainframe data to AWS. tcVISION’s GUI modeling and mapping, and ease of migrating data to AWS makes it an ideal choice for modernizing large mainframe environments.

Additionally, tcVISION can synchronize mission critical data from a mainframe system on AWS.  Real-time, bi-directional data synchronization enables changes on either system to be reflected on the other system (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table on AWS is reflected on the mainframe database). This allows businesses to modernize an application on AWS without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system.

“Through this exciting new collaboration, Treehouse Software and AWS are working together to offer customers with mainframe systems a straightforward solution for enhancing their business agility,” said George Szakach, President of Treehouse Software. “We provide our proven mainframe data delivery capabilities, and the customer benefits from modernization of their data within the flexible, scalable, pay-as-you-go offering on AWS.”

Video – How does tcVISION replicate mainframe data to AWS?

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About Treehouse Software, Inc.

Since 1982, Treehouse Software, Inc. has been serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading software products and outstanding technical support.  Today, Treehouse Software is a global leader in providing data migration, replication, and integration solutions for the most complex and demanding heterogeneous environments, as well as feature-rich, accelerated-ROI offerings for information delivery, business intelligence and analytics, and application modernization.

Where Do You Want to Go?

Enterprise ETL and Real-Time, Bidirectional Data Replication Between Virtually Any Source and Target.

Planning a data replication project between mainframe, Linux, Unix, and Windows platforms? We now have downloadable data sheets that individually focus on supported data replication sources and targets.

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Find out more about tcVISION — Enterprise ETL and Real-Time Data Replication Through Change Data Capture

tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data migration for mainframe application modernization projects and enabling bi-directional data replication between mainframe, Linux, Unix and Windows platforms. This innovative technology offers comprehensive abilities to identify and capture changes occurring in mainframe and relational databases, then publish the required information to an impressive variety of targets, both on-premise and Cloud-based.

tcVISION acquires data in bulk or via change data capture methods, including in real time, from virtually any IBM mainframe data source (Software AG Adabas, IBM DB2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, even sequential files), and transform and deliver to virtually any target. In addition, the same product can extract and replicate data from a variety of non-mainframe sources, including Adabas LUW, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 LUW and DB2 BLU, IBM Informix and PostgreSQL.

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Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tcVISION, or contact us to discuss your needs.