Government and Infrastructure Customers are Looking to Modernize Their Crucial Mainframe Data on Highly Available, Scalable, and Secure Cloud Databases

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

Everyone has seen the recent headlines about how aging and outdated technology nearly crippled the airline industry. As a result, modernizing and securing information systems has taken center stage and top priority again. Even before the airline IT disaster, the COVID-19 crisis was a critical event that forced modernization to become a strategic imperative for government, supply chain, healthcare, utilities/energy, financial, and defense industries. All of these sectors have critical data residing on a variety of long-standing mainframe databases (often still updated by COBOL applications), including Db2, VSAM, IMS/DB, Adabas, IDMS, Datacom, and sequential files. Unlocking the value of this important data can be difficult, because the data is often utilized by numerous interlinked and dependent programs that have been in place for decades.

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“The Federal Aviation Administration’s 30-year-old hazard-notification system recently had its first crash ever to cause a nationwide grounding of flights. The incident is focusing a bright light on the outdated federal computer systems that, IT experts say, are increasingly vulnerable to failure and cyberattack.” – Source: Christian Science Monitor Daily

Read the entire article here: Bringing US up to code: How outdated software has become a safety issue

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As a result of this renewed push to modernize IT systems, Treehouse Software has been seeing a significant increase in requests from Cloud platform partners, government agencies, and other infrastructure customers to evaluate modernization solutions that replicate data, in real time, on highly available and secure Cloud-based databases, data warehouses, etc.. Fortunately, Treehouse has the deep mainframe expertise and software tools to help. 

Since 1983, Treehouse Software has been working with many of these enterprises with mainframes in the areas of data migration, security, control, auditing, performance enhancement, etc.. Treehouse has also expanded its capabilities to focus on new requirements for modernizing legacy mainframe databases on various Cloud and open systems platforms with the tcVISION mainframe data replication product.  tcVISION is the primary tool  in Treehouse Software’s “data-first” approach, whereby immediate data replication to the Cloud helps customers get on the fast track to meeting spikes in demand for vital information, especially in times of crisis.

Some examples of popular Cloud databases supported by tcVISION are Amazon RDS PostgreSQL, Google Cloud SQL for SQL Server, and Azure SQL-Database. A complete list of data sources and targets that are supported by tcVISION can be found here.

Replicating mainframe data on the Cloud can happen within days during a tcVISION Proof of Concept (POC)…

After setup and installation, a tcVISION POC is approximately 10 business days, with the customer providing a small subset of data and use case for the POC. A Treehouse Software technician will assist in downloading and installing tcVISION and conducting a limited-scope implementation of a tcVISION application. This application uses a small subset of customer data and executes on customer facilities, usually in a non-production environment. A document is provided beforehand for the customer to fill out their requirements, use cases, and agenda for the POC.

By the end of the 10-day POC, customers can replicate and test mainframe data on their Cloud target database.  It can happen that fast!

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Further Reading…

Treehouse Software and AWS published a blog about tcVISION’s Mainframe-to-AWS data replication capabilities:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/real-time-mainframe-data-replication-to-aws-with-tcvision-from-treehouse-software/

Treehouse Software and Confluent recently co-authored a blog on modernizing on Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Environments:

https://www.confluent.io/blog/modern-data-management-for-hybrid-and-multi-cloud-architectures/

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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.

5-Minute Video: Connecting a Mainframe IDMS Database to an AWS SQL Server Database with tcVISION

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the leading tool for using changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between most mainframe data sources (IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, Software AG Adabas, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, or even sequential files) and Cloud and open systems-based databases and applications.

The following video takes a quick look at how tcVISION’s repository is used to import mainframe IDMS schema and builds out a target system on AWS:

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

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

7-Minute Video: Manage All of Your Mainframe-to-Cloud Data Replication Tasks from tcVISION’s Control Board

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the leading tool for using changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between most mainframe data sources (IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, Software AG Adabas, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, or even sequential files) and Cloud and open systems-based databases and applications.

The following video briefly takes a look at how the tcVISION Control Board (a Windows-based GUI interface) functions as a central point of administration, data mapping and modeling, script generation, and overall monitoring. In this example, we show how to manage connectivity and data replication between a Mainframe database and AWS PostgreSQL using the tcVISION Control Board:

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Further reading: tcVISION is featured on the AWS Partner Network Blog showing a walk-through of data replication between Mainframe and Amazon Aurora…

AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog: Real-Time Mainframe Data Replication to AWS with tcVISION from Treehouse Software.

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

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

tcVISION Video Demonstrations: Real-time Mainframe Data Replication on Three Popular Cloud SQL Databases

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the leading tool for using changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between most mainframe data sources (IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, Software AG Adabas, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, or even sequential files) and Cloud and open systems-based databases and applications. Changes occurring in the mainframe application data are then tracked and captured, and published to a variety of targets.

This video demonstrates real-time data replication between Db2 and PostgreSQL on AWS:

This video demonstrates real-time data replication between Db2 and Google Cloud SQL:

This video demonstrates real-time data replication between Db2 and Azure SQL:

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Further reading: tcVISION is featured on the AWS Partner Network Blog showing a walk-through of data replication between Mainframe DB2 z/OS and Amazon Aurora…

AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog: Real-Time Mainframe Data Replication to AWS with tcVISION from Treehouse Software.

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

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

Replicating Enterprise Mainframe Data to Cloud-based SQL Databases with tcVISION

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

Treehouse Software has been helping enterprise mainframe customers since 1982, and in recent years, we have been developing a strong presence in the Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication market space. This blog takes a quick look at three of the most popular Treehouse-supported Cloud-based SQL database services…

Amazon RDS, a collection of managed services that makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale databases in the Cloud. Users can control the type of database, as well as where data is stored. Specific database formats that are supported include Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and SQL Server:

Google Cloud SQL, a fully managed relational database service for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL server. You can connect with nearly any application, anywhere in the world. Cloud SQL automates backups, replication, and failover to ensure your database is reliable, highly available, and flexible to your performance needs:

Microsoft Azure SQL, a part of the Azure SQL family, Azure SQL Database is an always-up-to-date, fully managed relational database service built for the Cloud:

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Wherever you want to target your mainframe data on the Cloud, Treehouse Software helps to make the process easy…

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the leading tool for using changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between most mainframe data sources (IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, Software AG Adabas, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, or even sequential files) and Cloud and open systems-based databases and applications. Changes occurring in the mainframe application data are then tracked and captured, and published to a variety of targets.

Additionally, tcVISION supports bi-directional data replication, where changes on either platform are reflected on the other platform (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table in the Cloud is reflected back on mainframe), allowing the customer to modernize their application on the Cloud or open systems without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system. tcVISION’s bi-directional replication writes directly to the mainframe database, thereby bypassing all mainframe business logic, so this architecture requires careful planning, as well as thorough and repeated testing.

Sales and technical leaders at the major Cloud platform companies, as well as systems integrators are engaging with Treehouse Software to take advantage of our tcVISION data replication solution to help them tap into the mainframe data that customers want to be made available on new technologies.

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Further reading: tcVISION is featured on the AWS Partner Network Blog showing a walk-through of data replication between Mainframe DB2 z/OS and Amazon Aurora…

AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog: Real-Time Mainframe Data Replication to AWS with tcVISION from Treehouse Software.

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

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

Google Blog: Treehouse Software’s tcVISION is one of Google’s select solutions for mainframe data replication on the Google Cloud Platform

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

For many enterprises, the venerable mainframe is home to decades’ worth of data about the company’s customers, processes and operations. And it goes without saying that the business would like access to that mainframe data — to report on it, to analyze it with big data analysis tools, or to use it as the basis of new machine learning and artificial intelligence initiatives.

READ THE ENTIRE GOOGLE CLOUD BLOG HERE

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Contact Treehouse Software Today…

Treehouse Software has been helping mainframe enterprises since 1982, and our extensive experience, deep knowledge, and wide-ranging capabilities in mainframe technologies makes us a valued partner and a trusted advisor to customers.

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.

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.

Replicating Mainframe Data on Cloud-based Relational Databases

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

Treehouse Software has been helping enterprises mainframe customers since 1982, and in recent years, we have been developing a strong presence in the emerging 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.

The Choice is Yours…

tcVISION provides the means for customers to easily replicate relevant data between most mainframe data sources (IBM Db2, IBM VSAM, IBM IMS/DB, Software AG Adabas, CA IDMS, CA Datacom, or even sequential files) and the most popular Cloud platforms, including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Confluent Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. 

Today, customers are finding it easier than ever to set up, operate, and scale relational databases in the Cloud. Here is a quick look at some Cloud relational database systems that tcVISION supports…

Amazon Aurora relational database, a MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the Cloud that combines the performance and availability of traditional enterprise databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases:

Google Cloud SQL, a fully managed relational database service for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL server. You can connect with nearly any application, anywhere in the world. Cloud SQL automates backups, replication, and failover to ensure your database is reliable, highly available, and flexible to your performance needs:

Azure SQL Database is an intelligent, scalable, relational database service built for the Cloud. Optimize performance and durability with automated, AI-driven features that are always up to date. Focus on building new applications without worrying about storage size or resource management with serverless compute and Hyperscale storage options that automatically scale resources on demand:

How Does tcVISION Work?

tcVISION focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources and Cloud-based databases and applications. Through an innovative technology, changes occurring in any mainframe application data are tracked and captured, and then published to the targets.

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 Cloud 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.

Here is a high-level walkthrough of tcVISION mainframe data replication on Cloud and open systems…

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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.