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, Inc. helps US Foods® with their Mainframe Modernization Initiative

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

 

Treehouse Software, Inc. is pleased to announce that we were chosen by US Foods for their mainframe data modernization initiatives using the tcVISION Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems data replication product.  

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the leading tool for using change data capture (CDC) for synchronizing mainframe data with real-time and bi-directional data replication. tcVISION’s intuitive data modeling and mapping, and ease of migrating data, made it the ideal choice for helping to modernize the large mainframe environment at US Foods.  

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“The entire Treehouse Software team is excited about working with US Foods to make their modernization initiatives a success!” – George Szakach, CEO and President at Treehouse Software

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About US Foods

With a promise to help its customers Make It, US Foods is one of America’s great food companies and a leading foodservice distributor, partnering with approximately 250,000 restaurants and foodservice operators to help their businesses succeed. With 70 broadline locations and more than 80 cash and carry stores, US Foods and its 28,000 associates provides its customers with a broad and innovative food offering and a comprehensive suite of e-commerce, technology and business solutions. US Foods is headquartered in Rosemont, Ill. Visit https://www.usfoods.com/  to learn more.

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

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.

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.

AWS Services Provide Advanced Monitoring and Analytics of tcVISION’s Mainframe CDC Processing

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

Many Treehouse Software mainframe modernization customers have requirements for continuous near-real-time replication of mainframe data in order to keep a copy of the data synchronized on the Cloud. These customers are using tcVISION from Treehouse Software for changed data capture (CDC) for this synchronization, which allows changes occurring in any mainframe application data to be tracked and captured, and then published to a variety of AWS targets, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). Some of these customers are also now asking us to recommend the best Cloud-based tools and methods to monitor and gain insights to these complex data processes. Coincidentally, while working with a current tcVISION customer, our technicians are testing out two particularly good, fully managed AWS services that can work hand-in-hand to address this need:

Amazon Athena

Since tcVISION supports Amazon S3 as a target, customers modernizing their mainframe systems on AWS can use Amazon Athena for monitoring and analysis of CDC processing from an S3 bucket.

Amazon Athena is a serverless, interactive analytics service built on open-source frameworks, supporting open-table and file formats. Athena provides a simplified, flexible way to analyze data from an S3 Bucket, as well as many other data sources, including on-premises data sources or other Cloud systems. Athena is built on open-source Trino and Presto engines and Apache Spark frameworks, with no provisioning or configuration effort required.

Figure 1: Example of an Athena query showing bulk-load statistics per table

Amazon QuickSight

Once Athena is setup for monitoring an S3 Bucket, users can easily view their CDC processing and analytics with Amazon QuickSight. QuickSight utilizes advanced machine learning-powered insights and intuitive dashboards, so end users can make the best and quickest data-driven business decisions.

Figure 2: Example of Amazon QuickSight monitoring the throughput of our data to Snowflake

Figure 3: Example of Amazon QuickSight pie chart showing the resulting rows loaded for each Snowflake table:

Figure 4: Example of Amazon QuickSight chart showing statistics for our data bulk-load into Snowflake:

Figure 5: Example of Amazon QuickSight chart showing our load time into Snowflake per table:

View the Amazon QuickSite video here…

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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.

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Considerations for Planning Bi-Directional Mainframe Data Replication with tcVISION

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

Many medium-to-large size enterprises use mainframe systems that are housing vast amounts of mission-critical data encompassing historical, customer, logistics, etc. information.  Each mainframe site is unique and can have decades worth of customizations requiring innovative approaches to establishing data replication on Cloud and open systems platforms. Fortunately for these customers, Treehouse Software has been in the mainframe software market since 1982, bringing deep experience in mainframe, Cloud, and open systems technologies, as well as delivering the tcVISION mainframe data replication product. Today, Treehouse Software is helping many 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.

Treehouse Software’s tcVISION solution focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources 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.

Plan carefully…

The following section offers some real-world customer examples, as well as considerations and recommendations when planning bi-directional replication for any mainframe/RDBMS environments. Bi-directional replication by its nature is a very complicated undertaking, so it is necessary that customers are fully educated in all environments, software, and processes before attempting to write data back to a mainframe database. It is always recommended that customers use a minimally effective measure of bi-directional replication required to accomplish their goal — and no more. An overblown project with unnecessary bi-directional data replication invites undue complexity and delays.

Real-world customer examples…

Treehouse Software has many customers performing bi-directional data replication, and each scenario is vastly different from the others, even if some have the same sources and targets as each other.  For example, some customers utilize a Master/Master, collision-heavy proposition, while others use uni-directional one way, then “flip a switch” uni-directional the other way. Another example is a customer who has a “grand circle,” where data hits multiple applications before it finally makes its way back to an RDBMS staging database that tcVISION replicates to the mainframe.

Example of a Treehouse customer’s bi-directional data replication environment using tcVISION:

There are many planning and implementation stages that go into a successful mainframe replication environment, and performance testing is a vital part of a successful project.  For example, customers should do performance tests on how long it takes tcVISION to read a database log, transfer data, process data, etc.  During testing at one of our reference customer sites we found a significant difference in how long it took for their test and prod LPARs to transmit data to the Cloud, based on whether the mainframe TCP/IP stack used a 32-bit or 128-bit setting.

At another site, where we are helping a large government agency perform bi-directional replication on mainframe data, their original goal was for a significant percentage of mainframe objects to have bi-directional replication. It was determined that it would be impossible to extract business logic from the existing mainframe application for usage in the downstream application. Therefore, they have decided to use a middleware product to perform the “write-back” to the mainframe database.  Given the complexity of the mainframe application, this has proven the safest way for them to proceed.

Because of the variety of customer scenarios as described above, before any site can attempt bi-directional data replication, it is crucial that they have a well-tested uni-directional process with operational controls in place for a significant time period.  “Operational controls” means processes to restart scripts, evaluation of failed transactions, orchestration of mainframe/non-mainframe DBMS changes, etc.

Please contact Treehouse Software to discuss your Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems modernization plans. We can help put in place a roadmap to modernization success.

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Contact Treehouse Software Today for a tcVISION Demo…

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

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Providing a High Availability Framework for Mainframe-to-AWS Data Replication

by Dan Vimont, Cloud Solutions Architect at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Treehouse Software customers are using tcVISION to enable mission-critical mainframe-to-AWS data replication pipelines.  Some of these production pipelines are providing vital near-real-time synchronization between source and target, and thus can’t afford any significant downtime in the event of failure.  So it’s only natural that a number of our customers have been asking for advice in setting up a high availability configuration for their tcVISION components that run on AWS EC2 instances.  The High Availability Framework discussed here provides for a Failover EC2 instance to automatically pick up tcVISION processing should the Primary instance (running in another Availability Zone) go down.

The Core Components:  Primary Instance & Failover Instance

The core components of a tcVISION high availability framework consist of two EC2 instances running in different Availability Zones:  a Primary EC2 instance and a Failover EC2 instance.  Both identically-configured EC2 instances are attached to a shared working-storage file system (either an EFS or FSx volume), which allows the Failover instance to seamlessly and quickly pick up tcVISION processing should the Primary instance suddenly become unavailable.

Use a Step Function to Automate the Failover Process

In the event of failure of the Primary instance, the recommended framework calls for automatic triggering of a Step Function for reliable failover processing, with steps that include the following:

• verify that the Primary instance is unavailable (The tcVISION service cannot be active on both instances simultaneously, so this verification is vital.)
• redirect all network traffic from the Primary instance to the Failover instance (via Route 53)
• start tcVISION processing on the Failover instance

When Ready, Use a Step Function to Automate the Restoration Process

After operations personnel have completed recovery of the Primary EC2 instance, another Step Function may be manually triggered to reliably transfer tcVISION processing back to the Primary instance.

Many More Details are Available Upon Request to Treehouse Customers

Full details regarding our recommended High Availability Framework for tcVISION are available upon request to Treehouse customers.  AWS services utilized in the complete recommended framework include Step Functions, Lambda Functions, EventBridge rules, CloudWatch alarms, SNS topics, a Route 53 Private Hosted Zone, and more.  The following diagram is a partial visual inventory of the recommended framework components.

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.

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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.

How to Synchronize Data in Real Time Between the Mainframe and AWS with Treehouse Software’s Enterprise CDC Tool

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

Many mainframe integration scenarios require continuous near-real-time replication of relational data to keep a copy of the data synched in the Cloud. Change Data Capture (CDC) is used for this near-real-time transactional replication by capturing change log activity to drive changes in the target dataset.

Just what is CDC anyway?

Simply put, and in relation to Mainframe-to-Cloud and open systems data replication, CDC is the use of processes to identify when data has been changed in a source system, so the replicated upstream or downstream (depending on how you look at it) target can be kept in sync with the changes.

In a recent AWS Architecture Blog, readers learn about integration using mainframe data to build Cloud native services with AWS, including transactional replication-based integration via CDC.

As mentioned in the blog, AWS Partner CDC Tools are available for connecting data center mainframes to the various data targets, and Treehouse Software’s tcVISION is one of those tools available in the AWS Marketplace.

tcVISION allows changes occurring in any mainframe application data to be tracked and captured, and then published to a variety of target AWS databases and applications. tcVISION provides an easy and fast approach for Hybrid Cloud projects, enabling real-time and bi-directional data replication between the hardware and AWS.

Example of Db2-to-AWS CDC using tcVISION Mainframe Manager:

tcVISION supports several CDC methods available, depending on each customer’s use case:

Bulk Transfer

• Efficient transfer of entire databases
• Analysis for data consistency (verification)
• Initial load (ETL) and periodic mass data transfer
• One-step data transfer

Log Processing

• Transfer of changed data near-realtime or scheduled time frame
• Reads both active logs and archived logs

Batch Compare

• Comparison of data snapshots using checksums
• Efficient transfer of changed data since last processing
• Flexible processing options (SORT etc.)
• Automatic creation of deltas by tcVISION

DBMS Extension

• Real-time capture of changed data directly from the DBMS
• Secure data storage even across DBMS restart
• Flexible propagation methods

Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION CDC?

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.

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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.

Why is High Availability so Important for Mainframe Data Modernization on the Cloud?

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

Many customers embarking on Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication projects with Treehouse Software are looking at high availability (HA) as a key consideration in the planning process. All of the major Cloud platforms have robust HA infrastructures that keep businesses running without downtime or human intervention when a zone or instance becomes unavailable. HA basic principles are essentially the same across all Cloud platforms.

In this blog, our example shows how the AWS Global Infrastructure and HA is architected with Treehouse Software’s tcVISION real-time mainframe data replication product. A well planned HA architecture ensures that systems are always functioning and accessible, with deployments located in various Availability Zones (AZs) worldwide.

The following example describes tcVISION‘s HA Architecture on AWS. During tcVISION ’s Change Data Capture (CDC) processing for mainframe data replication on the Cloud, HA must be maintained. The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), which contains the tcVISION Agent, is part of an Auto Scaling Group that is spread across AZs with Amazon EC2 instance(s).

tcVISION and AWS overall architecture…

Upon failure, the replacement Amazon EC2 instance tcVISION Agent is launched and communicates its IP address to the mainframe tcVISION Agent. The mainframe tcVISION Agent then starts communication with the replacement Amazon EC2 tcVISION Agent.

Once the Amazon EC2 tcVISION Agent is restarted, it continues processing at its next logical restart point, using a combination of the LUW and Restart files. LUW files contain committed data transactions not yet applied to the target database. Restart files contain a pointer to the last captured and committed transaction and queued uncommitted CDC data. Both file types are stored on a highly available data store, such as Amazon Elastic File System (EFS).

tcVISION and AWS HA architecture…

For production workloads, Treehouse Software recommends turning on Multi-AZ target and metadata databases.

To keep all the dynamic data in an HA architecture, tcVISION uses EFS, which provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. It is built to scale on-demand to petabytes without disrupting applications, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, eliminating the need to provision and manage capacity to accommodate growth.

More information on AWS HA

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Treehouse Software helps enterprises immediately start synchronizing their mainframe data on the Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and Open Systems to take advantage of the most advanced, scalable, secure, and highly available technologies in the world with tcVISION…

tcVISION supports a vast array of integration scenarios throughout the enterprise, providing easy and fast data replication for mainframe application modernization projects and enabling bi-directional data replication between mainframe, Cloud, Open Systems, Linux, Unix, and Windows platforms.

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Contact Treehouse Software for a Demo Today…

Just fill out the tcVISION Product 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.