Is the Mainframe the Best SOA Platform?

A while back I had a post about a major US bank running a web services performance test and getting spectacular results using multiple zSeries Application Assist Processors (zAAP). James Governor makes an interesting point that using zAAPs on the mainframe can significantly reduce software licensing costs, making it a potentially attractive platform for new SOA-related infrastructure. A specific customer example with Farmers Insurance is cited here. Another post says that mainframe CICS customer are upgrading to the lastest CICS version which is XML- and web service-enabled at a faster pace than seen by CICS in 35 years. The same post claims 25% of z-Series mainframes are now running WebSphere Application Server... thats one in four. This post gives a customer reference from Wachovia (only the 4th largest US bank) which is running WebSphere tools on the mainframe.

Ex-Smalltalkers rejoice!

Check out Is smalltalk set for a renaissance? on James Governor's MonkChips blog.

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies, or opinions.

Incredible Web Services Performance Achieved

I ran into a co-worker I had not seen in a while last week at IBM Software University 2006. He has a major US Bank as his customer. He told me how they were pushing the envelope of web services performance by running the WebSphere software stack on their mainframe using multiple (I think it was 13 of them) zSeries Application Assist Processors (zAAP) for the mainframe Java virtual machines. They just ran a performance test for a web service enabled IMS legacy system transaction. (SOAP messages over HTTPS in through the web/java/JCA/IMS layer and back) The workload was driven by the WebSphere Workload Simulator, recently renamed the Rational Performance Tester for zOS. The ran 1000 transactions per second while achieving a 0.1 second average response time. Granted, the bank does not have this in production but this sounds like a big step forward in web services performance to me.

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies, or opinions.