In a new whitepaper, Zapthink analyst Jason Bloomberg writes that it’s not enough for enterprises to merely include legacy assets like mainframe computers in their SOA strategy: They must also take care to leverage its valuable attributes.

“Simply incorporating the mainframe as a passive participant in a SOA implementation, however, does not fully leverage the inherent strengths of the mainframe — reliability, performance, scalability and security, to name a few,” a passage from the whitepaper’s abstract reads. “To fully exploit the mainframe with newer technologies and architectures, it is important to select an integration approach that provides industry standard interconnectivy without adding complexity, risk and cost.”

Later in the whitepaper, Bloomberg examines DataDirect’s Shadow product. “Shadow provides a unified architecture for mainframe transformation supporting direct SQL access, real-time events, Web enablement, and the capability to both publish and consume Web Services. This type of middleware support can change the role of the mainframe and enable it to become a full-fledged, active participant in a SOA implementation.”

The whitepaper is free to registered users of www.zapthink.com.

Read more at: Application Development Trends