BEDFORD, MA and TALLAHASSEE, FL, Oct. 5, 2009 (Marketwire) --
BEDFORD, MA and TALLAHASSEE, FL -- (Marketwire) -- 10/05/09 -- Progress DataDirect, the data-infrastructure division of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading software provider that enables enterprises to be operationally responsive, today announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Mainline Information Systems, Inc., a leading provider of IBM servers, storage and software solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Mainline will offer the industry-leading mainframe integration middleware, Progress® DataDirect® Shadow® to its customers looking for cost-effective mainframe modernization through SOA enablement and legacy-data integration.
The DataDirect Shadow product is a single, unified platform built exclusively for integration with IBM System z mainframes. The high-performance foundation architecture supports all major industry-standard requirements for integrating mainframe data, business logic, and screens with SOAs and composite application development initiatives. The DataDirect Shadow platform uses patent-pending technology to expand the utilization of the IBM System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) specialty engine to additional workloads beyond DB2, including the non-relational mainframe databases Adabas, IMS/DB, IDMS and VSAM, as well SOAP/XML parsing necessary for creating Web services within the mainframe to applications residing within CICS, IMS/TM, IDMS and Natural.
Since its founding in 1989, Mainline has experienced outstanding growth by providing solid technology solutions and high levels of service to its customers. By offering the DataDirect Shadow platform, Mainline expands its offerings to continue to meet the infrastructure, environment and business needs of its customers while helping keep technology budgets in-check. Internal benchmark testing by Progress DataDirect has shown up to 99 percent of the processing associated with SOA integration, SQL data queries, Change Data Capture (CDC) for events and Web-enablement can be diverted from the mainframe's General Purpose Processor (GPP) to be handled by the zIIP specialty engine -- which does the work without using any of the mainframe licensed MIPs capacity. This is an attractive proposition for organizations looking to lower mainframe total-cost-of-ownership and for existing Mainline zIIP accounts who can now realize the benefit of DataDirect Shadow for data sources in addition to DB2.
"Mainline is always looking for innovative products and services that will bring value to our customers and exceed their business and IT requirements," said Doug Harrell, vice president of System z sales at Mainline Information Systems.
