Iona, the e-business platform provider for total business integration, has announced the Iona Mainframe Integrator version 2.0. This new release of Iona Mainframe Integrator supports the integration of most mainframe applications into new enterprise and e-business applications.
The Iona Mainframe Integrator is used by large companies around the world which are increasing their return-on-mainframe investment by turning their OS/390 and z/OS applications into easily accessible services. For these companies, a service-oriented architecture is the most effective means to integrate their mainframe solutions with their newly developed Web-based applications. These companies are also in position to take advantage of new Web services standards to extend the value of their mainframe assets.
"Iona sets the standard in the mainframe integration market by connecting mainframe systems to the expanding world of e-business and Web services integration," says Themi Themistocleous, director at Software Futures, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE Securities Exchange-listed MGX and the local distributor for Iona.
"No other platform middleware vendor, other than IBM itself, expresses a similar level of commitment to IBM mainframes and can display a wider array of customers," says Gartner. "By 2003, Iona Technologies will emerge as the main alternative to IBM as a supplier of J2EE technology for composite applications on zSeries (S/390) platforms."
Iona Mainframe Integrator 2.0 is a standards-based mainframe integration solution native to the OS/390-z/OS environment. It transforms applications running in CICS, IMS, batch and other mainframe environments into well defined services accessible throughout the enterprise and provides full support for Cobol and PL/I - the languages of mainframe systems and developers.
Existing application owners can use their current skills to expose existing business services, and offer appropriate new composite features and functionality that are immediately usable by developers working in other languages and in other environments.
"There is no paradigm newer or more challenging than that of Web services," says Themistocleous. "On the other hand, no technology is more widely used for large, robust business-critical applications than the IBM mainframe. Iona Mainframe Integrator bridges these two disparate worlds to their mutual advantage."
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The software solution business of MGX is SA's leader in the application of best practices for software development and implementation. With a staff of 500, it is one of the largest and most successful development teams in SA, and enjoys a strong leadership position in component-based development and global best practices, applications implementation and systems integration.
MGX
MGX listed in the IT sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1995 and has, during its six-year history as a listed company, delivered consistent growth to shareholders. MGX was ranked eighth in the Sunday Times top 100 companies for 2000.
MGX has operations in SA, Botswana, Australia, the UK and the US, and is grouped into five focused strategic business units, which have strong operational and strategic synergies.
The underlying theme to what MGX provides is the existence of business information and the need to manage and deliver that information through all the applications available to business users.
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