Apps, SOAs, and Clouds: Using JavaScript Tools for Mainframe Integration

by Russ Teubner
April 5, 2010

This is third of three articles on JavaScript tools for mainframe integration.

In February’s CICS Spotlight, I shared testimonials from web services developers reporting productivity gains of 4 to 25 times when using a JavaScript tool for mainframe integration; in March, we counted down 10 top reasons why more integration developers/architects are turning to fast, easy, flexible JavaScript.

This month I want to close out the series with three brief cases of companies using a JavaScript-based engine to develop and deploy web services to integrate CICS applications and mainframe data with numerous distributed systems.

The three companies – an auto maker integrating applications, a credit union doing SOA enablement, and a health insurer bringing its mainframe to the cloud – are gaining tactical advantages by rapidly developing reusable, standards-based services ready for any environment. At the same time, they are building toward the goal of leveraging the mainframe as an integral part of SOA strategy.

Auto Maker: Application Integration. The finance division of a top ten auto manufacturer runs a CICS lease management application and stores lessee and program data in VSAM files. Customer service reps use these resources all day every day. When the division implemented Siebel CRM, they needed a practical way to integrate their mainframe into the new customer service system.

With a JavaScript-based integration tool, the company developed, tested, and deployed 40 web services in just 35 man days. Also, because their JavaScript engine supports the full range of services types, and both their systems reside inside the firewall, they were able to employ a lightweight RESTful services model (HTTP GET/POST to an ESB and Siebel CRM) and avoid the heavy lifting associated with formal SOAP/WSDL services.

They chose their JavaScript tool specifically because of the inherent flexibility of its standards-based approach and because many of their developers and integration architects already knew JavaScript. Shorter development cycles enabled the auto maker to achieve their objective and initial ROI in just over a month. This first tactical implementation also fit in seamlessly with a larger SOA vision.

Credit Union: SOA Enablement. The largest credit union in the world has 7,000 employees serving more than 3 million members deployed around the world. The credit union standardized on a JavaScript integration tool several years ago, and their approach to SOA is a model case of tactical implementations building toward strategic goals. Today, their SOA is the backbone for most member- and employee-facing systems, including online banking, ATM machines in all 24 time zones, a Universal Agent Desktop, and teller applications. Thanks to their JavaScript integration tool, all these user-facing systems integrate flawlessly with Fidelity banking apps and other CICS applications.