The desire to access mainframe data and business logic has inspired many grand tech initiatives, including client-server, XML, and SOA. It's fair to say that most big, mature SOA implementations have been built on a foundation of mainframe services. That's one reason IBM, the only remaining U.S. mainframe vendor, announced app dev tools for mainframes and plans for mainframe versions of its most popular enterprise software. Mainframes are finding a second career as a hub for SOA and other services, said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive of IBM's Software Group.

Many enterprises, such as yours, may have millions of dollars worth of mainframe assets and core business applications that support the heart of the business. In fact, its estimated that some $5 trillion worth of applications - i.e. business assets - reside on today's IBM mainframe systems. The convergence of SOA and mainframe technologies can liberate these core business assets by making it easier to enrich, modernize, extend, and reuse them well beyond their original scope of design. As a result, you can deliver new value more rapidly, affordably, and at lower risk than by rebuilding and replacing what already works well for the business.

To facilitate that move, IBM unveiled new Rational development tools that generate Cobol code and yet cater to the style of Java and Visual Basic programmers. The company also said that it will release mainframe z/OS versions of its WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere Portal, DB2 Viper, and Tivoli Federated Identity Manager later this year.

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Prashanth Rai