Treehouse Software Products and Professional Services for Adabas / Natural Help with ALLETE’s Mainframe Retirement

by Mike Kuechenberg, Senior Technical Representative at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Since 2010, Treehouse Software consultants have provided product training and Professional Services for the planned retirement of the mainframe environment at ALLETE.

Here’s a look at three parts of the project in which Treehouse was involved:

tRelational / DPS

In order to replicate Adabas data to Oracle, ALLETE licensed Treehouse’s tRelational / DPS product set. After some initial training by Treehouse Professional Services, ALLETE staff were able to model and map Adabas files to Oracle schemata using tRelational, and to deploy DPS jobs to materialize (ETL) and propagate (CDC) the Adabas data into Oracle. This continued until the final cutover to the new systems. Just before the mainframe was decommissioned, some additional Adabas files were materialized by Treehouse Professional Services for archival purposes.

DBA Consulting

Treehouse Professional Services took over the DBA responsibilities for ALLETE starting in September 2010. The responsibilities included Software AG product upgrades, daily checks on available database space and file extents, and requests from ALLETE staff like file restores, field maintenance, and any other request requiring DBA involvement.

Systems Support

Additionally, Treehouse Professional Services assumed responsibility for ALLETE’s mainframe systems programming activities. Tasks included monthly IPLs to the system, applying licenses to products, handling system error situations, defining new DASD, upgrading IBM and third-party products, providing periodic SOX reports, and handling other requests from ALLETE staff.

Conclusion of a Successful Engagement

As this five-year Treehouse Software / ALLETE partnership ends, we wish our friends all the best as they move forward with their new systems and strategies.

“During the time our companies have been working together, Treehouse personnel were always responsive and are experts in their fields. Thanks for the flexibility and great support over the years.”

– Eric Peterson, Manager, IT Infrastructure, ITS Systems, ALLETE Inc.

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About Treehouse Software Professional Services

Treehouse Professional Services offer a proven, cost-effective alternative to full-time in-house systems programmers, system administrators and DBAs. Using our team of experts and monitoring techniques, Treehouse offers world-class, on-site and remote system support and DBA service at affordable prices. Treehouse Professional Services offer various levels of system monitoring and administration. Our team will monitor critical factors within your Software AG environment, apply preventive maintenance for your systems and databases, and keep your software up-to-date. We even provide z/OS systems programming services! We are strongly committed to our customers’ success and we deliver the highest quality DBA and support solutions.

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

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About Treehouse Software’s tRelational / DPS Product Set

tRelational / DPS is a robust product set that provides modeling and data transfer of legacy ADABAS data into modern RDBMS-based platforms for Internet/Intranet/Business Intelligence applications. Treehouse Software designed these products to meet the demands of large, complex environments requiring product maturity, productivity, feature-richness, efficiency and high performance.

The tRelational component provides complete analysis, modeling and mapping of ADABAS files and data elements to the target RDBMS tables and columns. DPS (Data Propagation System) performs Extract, Transformation, and Load (ETL) functions for the initial bulk RDBMS load and incremental Change Data Capture (CDC) batch processing to synchronize ADABAS updates with the target RDBMS.

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

A Job Well-Done by Treehouse Software Consulting Services for Swiss Reinsurance Company, Ltd.

Since 2002, Treehouse Software consultants have provided DBA services for the Software AG (SAG) mainframe environment at Swiss Reinsurance Company, Ltd. (Swiss Re). Treehouse services included all SAG product support and upgrades for ADABAS, NATURAL, NATURAL Security, PREDICT, and COM-PLETE.

Additionally, Treehouse consultants installed the TRIM ADABAS and NATURAL Performance Monitor product to help in monitoring ADABAS and NATURAL usage, and the tRelational / DPS product set was used for converting and archiving Swiss Re’s ADABAS data as the new Oracle-based systems were implemented.

As this chapter of the long-time Treehouse Software / Swiss Re partnership has drawn to a close, we express our gratitude for having such a good and loyal customer, and we appreciate their sentiments towards us:

“Thank you for your professional and prompt DBA and support services to Swiss Re for the last many years. You have kept our systems on the most current level of software upgrades, helped us to successfully migrate our mainframe from in-house facilities to an outside provider, as well as migrate from the Toronto system to a global platform-based L&H system, and finally provided archival data extracts for the total decommissioning of the Toronto system.

At all stages we have received excellent and cost-effective services from Treehouse.

We sincerely thank each one of you for helping us achieve our goals. Best wishes for the future.”

Sheila Gupta
Vice President, Information Technology
Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd.

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About Treehouse Software Consulting Services

At Treehouse Software, our business is mainframe systems software and services. We know that organizations using mainframe systems for their business operations are feeling the pressure to be more efficient and to contribute to overall enterprise cost savings, and we’re here to help.

Customers can take advantage of Treehouse’s decades of experience in mainframe optimization, systems security, control, auditing, performance enhancement, etc. Our Mainframe Consulting and Remote DBA Services can be a life-saver when dwindling financial and human resources make it difficult to maintain past levels of IT services for an organization.

Treehouse Software’s expert consultants can provide ADABAS/NATURAL performance analysis, environment tuning, and optimization; development, training and implementation services involving any Software AG technology; help with special routines or user exits for ADABAS/NATURAL; product installation, upgrades, and training; data transfer and integration; and DBA services.

Contact Treehouse Software for more information on our Consulting Services.

A Helping Hand and a Partner: Treehouse Software Consulting and DBA Services

by Wayne Lashley, Chief Business Development Officer for Treehouse Software and Joseph Brady, Marketing and Documentation Manager for Treehouse Software

Many organizations using ADABAS/NATURAL and other technologies on mainframes and open systems are feeling the pressure to be more efficient, and to contribute to overall enterprise cost savings. However, with retirements, hiring freezes, budget constraints, and scarcity of qualified expertise, it is becoming more and more challenging to find cost effective ways to maintain current levels of service and reliability.

Fortunately, these organizations can take advantage of Treehouse Software‘s decades of experience in database administration, systems programming and mainframe optimization.

Feel Like You Are Being Pulled Under?

Give us a call today to tell us about your current situation, and a Treehouse representative will conduct simple and short interviews with key employees of your organization to understand what issues you would like to address. We will then follow up with a brief report on how Treehouse Consulting and DBA Services can help you meet your IT goals with an affordable and reliable solution.

Grab a Treehouse Lifeline

Treehouse Software consultants are experts in z/OS and z/VSE environments, and especially in ADABAS/NATURAL deployments on both mainframe and open systems. Treehouse Consulting and DBA Services can deliver benefits in:

• Focused IT strategy
• Savings in time, resources and operating costs
• Empowerment of current IT staff

Examples of Treehouse Services:

• On-site and remote ADABAS/NATURAL DBA Services on mainframes and open systems, including monitoring, preventive maintenance and administration

• ADABAS/NATURAL performance analysis, environment tuning, and optimization

• Development, training and implementation services involving any Software AG technology

• Special routines or user exits for ADABAS/NATURAL

• Software product installation, upgrades, and training

• Data replication, migration and integration

• 24-hour telephone support

• Software upgrades

• Ongoing NATURAL SECURITY administration services

• Analysis, consultation, and recommendations on Software AG product performance and tuning, NATURAL coding approaches, ADABAS file design and feature usage, and related matters

• Participation in disaster recovery tests

• Participation in actual disaster recovery in the event of a declared disaster

• Mainframe support (z/OS support, MVS support, OS/390 support, z/VSE support)

• Mainframe upgrade assistance (z/OS upgrade, MVS upgrade, OS/390 upgrade, z/VSE upgrade)

• Mainframe outsourcing

• Mainframe specialist assistance (z/OS specialist, MVS specialist, OS/390 specialist, z/VSE specialist)

• z/OS systems programming

• Assembler programming

• SMP/E assistance

• Mainframe security assistance (RACF assistance, Top Secret assistance, ACF2 assistance)

• z/PDT support, ADCD support

• Mainframe software maintenance

Let’s Talk!

We’re ready to discuss your needs. If you have any questions or need more information on Treehouse Consulting and Remote DBA Services, contact us today!