Features and benefits
With 60% of business data residing on the mainframe, mainframe data access is important to the success of many of today's business-critical IT initiatives including:
Delivering mainframe operational data to customer self-service Web sites
Connecting e-commerce sites with mainframe inventory data
Integrating business intelligence systems in real time with mainframe accounting data
Connecting an enterprise portal to mainframe human resources data
IBM® InfoSphere™ Classic Federation Server for z/OS® provides direct, real-time SQL access to mainframe databases and files without mainframe programming. It maps logical relational table structures to existing physical mainframe databases and files. UNIX, Windows®, and Linux tools and applications issue standard SQL commands to these logical tables.
InfoSphere Classic Federation Server for z/OS dynamically generates native data access commands that are optimized for each database and file type. Results are automatically translated and reformatted into relational rows and columns providing seamless integration of all mainframe data assets without proprietary programming.
The business benefits of InfoSphere Classic Federation Server for z/OS include:
Extending the value of existing mainframe investments. Rather than ripping out and replacing mainframe assets, clients can extend these investments to deliver new business applications or integrate business operations.
Reducing time-to-value for integration projects that require mainframe data by eliminating proprietary coding and multi-platform development and automating complex multi-source integration.
Minimizing dependence on scarce legacy data skills by empowering non-mainframe staff to automatically leverage legacy data sources without investing in the proprietary skills associated with these data sources.
Empowering IT to rapidly deliver information rich business solutions that present up-to-the second information rather than stale copied data.
InfoSphere Classic Federation Server for z/OS can also extend IBM® InfoSphere Federation Server's access to nonrelational mainframe data sources. InfoSphere Classic Federation Server for z/OS lets applications access diverse and distributed data -- including multi-vendor mainframe and distributed, structured and unstructured, public and private -- as if it were a single database.
