Now all those working lines of COBOL need not be `thrown away`, they can be `wrapped` and made part of an enterprise-wide component based architecture. Software AG, one of the 20 largest independent software companies world-wide, has successfully created a DCOM business object on the mainframe by wrapping a COBOL program using EntireX DCOM. EntireX is Software AG`s new generation of middleware that extends DCOM from the Windows platform to the rest of the enterprise. Schalk Viljoen, Software AG business manager at SPL, part of JSE-listed Dimension Data, says EntireX can act as a bridge between an organisation`s past investments and its future needs. "Companies can add new platforms such as Windows NT to their IT landscapes and still retain - and in fact extend - their legacy and working applications, whether on mainframe, UNIX or Windows. "Wrapping an existing COBOL program means it can now be made to look like a COM component," he adds. "And with EntireX DCOM available on OS/390, any client platform, including Microsoft Windows NT, UNIX, MS Win 95 and OS/390, can be used to access an object on the mainframe." DCOM can be used as the communication method where the mainframe object has been developed as a component using NATURALX (Natural supporting DCOM) and where EntireX DCOM has been used to wrap a COBOL or NATURAL program to look like a component.
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