Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation announced on January 30^th the release of its NeoData software product, the latest addition to its suite of modernize-as-you-migrate solutions for legacy mainframe applications. NeoData provides an easy and flexible route for converting VSAM data to Microsoft(R) SQL Server(R) without having to make changes to the COBOL code. Data that might seem to be locked within the COBOL-specific, proprietary formats of the VSAM data system can now be opened up to the richer query environment provided by SQL Server. NeoData provides a Data Mapper tool that handles the challenging aspects of VSAM to SQL migrations, such as multiple record formats and the COBOL OCCURS clause, which often derail attempts to perform this migration manually. Early users of NeoData have been excited by the ease with which they are able to migrate their VSAM data to SQL Server. Sheila Silva, chief information officer of Ability Resources Inc, an insurance group specializing in long-term care insurance, states, “The growth plans for Ability Resources dictate that our systems have to be centered on a flexible, scalable platform such as SQL Server(R). Consequently we had to move a core system from the mainframe to ASP.NET and were looking for ways to make the data more accessible than it was within VSAM files. Fortunately we heard about NeoData and were given the opportunity to be early users of the product as we couldn’t have completed the project in such a timely manner without it. With no changes to the COBOL file handling code, NeoData gave us a low-risk solution that also delivered speed of implementation and the desired functionality.” 

For more information about this exciting new software product, read the press release. 

The Fujitsu ServerView suite works in conjunction with the Integrated Remote Management Controller (IRMC) in supporting around-the-clock operation of PRIMERGY servers and improving end-user productivity with intelligent system management solutions. ServerView delivers higher IT value and reduced operating costs by allowing network-wide remote access, providing a single point of control. At the same time, automated updating and detailed asset management simplify operation. Centralized remote control also helps minimize branch office costs by eliminating the need for an on-site administrator and contributes to cost savings by allowing the PRIMERGY servers to be shut down at night when not in use in order to save power. 

To read more about ServerView and IRMC, be sure to download the related Data Sheet. 

On June 11, Fujitsu and Software AG unveiled CentraSite™ 3.1, the latest version of their jointly developed solution for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) governance. (Read the entire press release here). This integrated registry/repository has been enhanced to deliver greater out-of-the-box support for the third-party tools offered by members of the CentraSite Community. Through this pre-integration, enterprises can more quickly develop customized solutions while also benefiting from federated management of their heterogeneous environments. With the launch, the two companies have also introduced a series of measures to enhance the CentraSite Community. Established in 2006, the CentraSite Community is a collaborative network of independent software vendors and system integrators that work together to ensure their products interoperate through CentraSite. This enhanced collaboration is designed to reduce the cost required for both deploying and sustaining SOA implementations. 

For more information about CentraSite 3.1 and to download a free copy of the CentraSite tool set, visit www.centrasite.com. For more information on the Fujitsu BPM and SOA offerings, email interstage@us.fujitsu.com  

In several recent Gartner Magic Quadrant Reports, Fujitsu scored as a Leader in three reports and a Challenger in one. According to Gartner, Magic Quadrant Reports “offer visual snapshots of a market’s direction, maturity and participants.”
Fujitsu Interstage earned the following ratings in the referenced Magic Quadrant Reports:
 

• Application Infrastructure: Leader
• Service-Oriented Business Applications: Leader
• Back-end Integration: Leader
• Composite Application Projects: Challenger

In the reports, Gartner commends Fujitsu for:

§         “Strong presence in the BPM area and the introduction of its SOA methodology” 
§         “Comprehensive BPM/SOA Interstage product portfolio”
§         “Strong presence in human-to-human BPM area that offers strong capability in orchestration”
§         “Deep understanding of back-end integration requirements, with a long history of supporting the mainframe environment.”
§         “Strong capability in composing, sequencing and managing services with Interstage Service Integrator/Fujitsu enterprise service bus (ESB) accompanied by service registry and repository (CentraSite)”
§         “Significantly expanded consulting and engineering resources in the U.S. — it has won U.S./U.K. customers and gained significant growth ratio outside Japan”
§         “Expansion of the developer community around CentraSite” 
§         “Fujitsu hardware brand recognition and global reach that are leveraged for Interstage sale”
§         “Strong commitment by its CEO to business expansion outside Japan”
§         “Strong capability in enabling legacy applications into services along with legacy integration”
§         “High quality of service application platform technology, along with service development tool (Interstage Studio)”
§         “Features address batch-based and real-time integration requirements”
§         “A growing number of deployments inside and outside the U.S. that integrate mainframe legacy applications (such as COBOL applications on a mainframe) with applications in an open-systems environment.”       
For more information on Fujitsu’s BPM & SOA offerings, email us at interstage@us.fujitsu.com

On March 28, a webcast featuring Ron Langer, Vice President of Legacy Modernization for Fujitsu, and Michael Dee Hester, Mainframe Modernization Program Manager for Microsoft was broadcast on SearchCIO.com. For the next 12 weeks you will be able to view this webcast to find out how to reuse valuable mainframe application assets while leveraging the price, power, and performance of Microsoft technology. And get the answers you’ve been looking for to questions about making the move from the mainframe.  If your business currently relies on a mainframe, chances are you’ve run into one or more of the following issues: limited flexibility, low productivity, high costs and finite support of the overall platform. Watch this “Legacy Modernization using .NET” webcast, jointly presented by Microsoft and Fujitsu to learn how to enable your applications to: 

• Leverage agility for competitive advantage 

• Enhance application performance 

• Increase developer productivity 

• Combine mainframe and Windows development teams and more

To register for the webcast, go to this link on SearchCIO.com. 

The Legacy Modernization team recently chalked up another significant win with Crystal Cruises. The company was facing the end of support for VSE product from IBM and would have been looking at expensive hardware and software upgrades if they stayed on the mainframe. Fujitsu stepped in and offered its legacy modernization suite of products. By employing the Fujitsu suite, Crystal Cruises was able to leverage its legacy COBOL applications while moving them to the modern Microsoft .NET environment. This has endowed them with more IT flexibility, increased their business agility and saved extensively on costs. 

Boban Dragojlovic, Vice President of Computer Services at Crystal Cruises, commented, “Besides making excellent cost savings, our long term goal in moving to the .NET environment is to be able to transition our applications to a traditional .NET Web page/VB/SQL model. From the start I could see that the concept of migrating applications from our on-board and home office mainframes made sense, and I have been very pleased with how Fujitsu has helped me deal with areas of concern, including releasing support for TD Queue triggers just when we needed it! The performance of the latest release of NeoKicks has also been excellent with one of our end-of-cruise jobs going from 50-60 minutes to 80 seconds – and that’s just on my desktop!” On NeoBatch, Dragojlovic adds, “NeoBatch was already working very well for Crystal Cruises. Most of the new features target larger installations. The new feature that was a real boon for us was exposing all the JCL attributes to the custom print handler. Now every bit of batch output is passed through a custom printer handler which we wrote so we were able to go entirely paperless.” 

A white paper was recently published by Keith Swenson (Vice President of Research and Development and Amita Abraham (Senior Product Marketing Manager) of Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation. The paper outlines eight “best practices” for moving to a shared-services infrastructure. As noted in the paper: 

“Shared-services is a form of ‘internal outsourcing’ that allows enterprises to achieve considerable cost benefits by utilizing a single group within the organization to create and manage specific IT services. 

“The main benefits of shared-services are cost savings and rapid deployment of new applications by leveraging access to centralized expertise and infrastructure. 

“Despite these benefits, many companies have been slow to move toward a shared-services infrastructure because they are confused about how to do so. This article examines what a shared-services infrastructure is, who should consider evolving to one, and best-practices for launching such an initiative.” 

To read the entire paper and to learn the important best-practices, please visit this link. 

“Governance” is a dominant topic in today’s discussions about SOA. Governance involves all aspects of IT, and defines how authority can be exercised within existing IT processes by introducing systems and methodologies for managing IT most effectively.
The governance topic can be best approached by addressing two major considerations:
• Organizational Implications
• Technical Mechanisms
The Fujitsu Enterprise Software and Solution Group is perfectly positioned to address the technical mechanisms with its SOA Management and Governance solution: CentraSite.
CentraSite is the foundation of the open, standards-based SOA coalition “CentraSite Community”, which consists of leading SOA vendors. To quote from the CentraSite website, “As the central ‘SOA Store’ for the enterprise, CentraSite offers greater visibility and control of information, supports better decision-making, and increases productivity. It serves as a Web services and SOA asset management platform, holding all your enterprise’s metadata assets, and offering reports on usage.”
Seagull Software becomes strategic sponsor of CentraSite
In related CentraSite news, Seagull Software, a leading provider of high-performance software solutions that transform legacy business applications into service-oriented architecture (SOA) assets, announced itself as a strategic sponsor of the CentraSite™ Community. The CentraSite Community was formed to help enterprises successfully design, implement, manage, govern and optimize a SOA.
At the foundation of the community is the CentraSite SOA registry and repository, which stores the different SOA artifacts being created by architects, process modelers and developers. Seagull Software is integrating LegaSuite with CentraSite, and the Community portal provides customers with a single destination for an integrated platform of tools and middleware for SOA. CentraSite is built on the fundamental SOA principles of interoperability and reuse. The coalition of sponsoring partners in the CentraSite Community provides enterprise customers with CentraSite-enabled SOA tools. With each member that joins, CentraSite gets enhanced to support more reusable SOA components. The Community, which was founded by Fujitsu and Software AG has 20 sponsors to date.
For more information on the CentraSite Community visit the CentraSite Community website.