Lower your TCO with Shadow

DataDirect Mainframe Integration Products

Mainframes are essential foundational elements for many of the world’s largest organizations. However, changing economics and tight IT budgets are causing many to reevaluate their commitment to the platform. DataDirect Shadow can dramatically reduce mainframe Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to allow processing capacity to support new development initiatives.

With a single unified architecture, Shadow can reduce integration complexity, cost and risk. The product’s patent-pending technology for zIIP specialty engine exploitation can divert more than 90% of the processing for integration for Web services or supporting Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) and data integration processing to areas that do not measure capacity. Mainframe processing capacity not charged is capacity freed to be used to support new projects, delivering a lower overall ROI for mainframe related work. A system z platform, DataDirect Shadow allows organizations to derive the maximum value from their technology investments, for lower mainframe costs, with simplified development and reduced integration complexity.

Discover how to offload 90% of your mainframe SOA processing for drametically lower TCO

Reduce Integration Complexity
Traditional approaches to mainframe integration have relied on technologies that were either too rigid or lacked scalability. Often these methods created a bewildering array of point-to-point connections that added costs, complexity, and risk of failure to an organization’s mission-critical infrastructure. Reducing this complexity is at the core of DataDirect’s industry leading mainframe integration product suite, Shadow.

With Shadow, the investment in a single unified mainframe integration platform can measurably reduce complexity, points of failure, and the associated costs of maintaining the typical "accidental" architecture that defines most enterprise integration scenarios. A single platform with a common architecture and deployment method is capable of supporting multiple integration paradigms, including SOA with bi-directional web services, direct SQL data access, real-time event capture and publishing, as well as web enablement. Add to this robust functionality, the ability to cost-effectively deploy industry standard BPEL 2.0 within the unmeasured processing enviroment of IBM's zAAP speciality engine, allowing organizations to expand their SOA strategy with web services orchestration, a precursor to true cross-platform business process optimization.

Shadow: An Essential Architectural Foundation
Shadow provides the essential foundation for secure, reliable and scalable integration of mainframe data, business logic, and screen environments. Shadow satisfies the entire range of requirements for mainframe legacy integration from within a single, integrated product set. Functioning as a single, industry standard SOA intermediary, Shadow provides seamless interoperability between Java and .NET application development frameworks and a wide range of mainframe data sources and applications.

With Shadow , you get a robust, multi-threaded, native runtime that provides a real-time foundation architecture for standards-based mainframe integration, supporting:

  • Web services - Simplify and accelerate mainframe deployments with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) using Shadow z/Services.
  • Real-time events - Drive heterogeneous business processes or maintain data consistency between mainframe and RDMS with Shadow z/Events.
  • Direct SQL Access - Streamline access to a wide range of mainframe data and program environments with Shadow z/Direct.
  • Web Enablement - Transform mainframe screen-based applications into modern, user-friendly web applications using Shadow z/Presentation.

The Industry Standard for Mainframe Integration
Shadow has been evaluated by the leading industry research firms Gartner and Forrester and is the leading technology for integrating mainframe systems with distributed Java and .NET application development environments. By standardizing on Shadow, you can expect to significantly reduce the complexity associated with mainframe integration and be better positioned to reduce the total cost of ownership for all modern computing initiatives that require access to mainframe applications and data.

Traditional Mainframe Connection Relationship
Mainframe Integration with SHADOW
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DataDirect Shadow Mainframe Connection Relationship
Mainframe Integration with SHADOW
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More Information
SOA enablement of mainframe business logic
SOA enablement of mainframe data
SOA enablement of mainframe screen process
Shadow Advanced Features
Web Enablement
Real Time Events
Direct SQL Access
Mainframe Consumption of Web Services