Oracle Modernization Solutions

A practical guide to planning and implementing SOA Integration and Re-architecting to an Oracle platform

Much has been written about legacy modernization in the past few years. Most of the books, analysts' reports, and white papers focus on why you should modernize and theorize at a high level regarding the different approaches and possible outcomes. This book provides a detailed guide to how to implement two well known mainframe modernization approaches—SOA Enablement and Re-architecture.

SOA Integration is a non-invasive approach and allows legacy components to be used as part of an SOA infrastructure quickly and without risk and is often the first step in the larger modernization process. Re-architecture focuses on reverse engineering legacy applications to preserve business knowledge then forward them to modern architectures that take advantage of open and extensible standards.

In this book you will learn how to quickly and easily expose a mainframe VSAM data store in an Oracle-based Java EE application. You will also learn how to leverage your mainframe application code to create a new Oracle/Java EE SOA-based application. The book is agnostic in terms of hardware and operating system as most of these have proven to be able to handle the reliability, scalability, and performance of a mainframe system.

After reading this book, you will feel much more comfortable that mainframe modernization is possible and can made less risky by following the recommendations and approaches used in the book.

What you will learn from this book

• Gain an understanding of different approaches to modernization of legacy systems
  
  
• Determine your short and long term modernization strategies and know how to look for the right business and technology drivers in your organization
  
  
• Understand when and why you would choose the modernization options of SOA Integration and Re-architecture
  
  
• Architect an Oracle-based platform for you modernized legacy system
  
  
• Know the best approaches to take to transform your application from a rigid, monolithic system to an agile, adaptable application based on Oracle and SOA
  
  
• Quickly SOA-enable your legacy mainframe application using legacy SOA Integration
  
  
• Use the hands-on SOA Integration example that walks you through the entire development process as a starting point for your own pilot project
  
  
• Use the hands-on Re-architecture example that focuses on forward engineering business rules, presentation tier, and screen navigation from the legacy system into an Oracle platform as a starting point for your own pilot project
  
  
• Learn about Oracle's modernization re-host solution: Oracle Tuxedo
  
  
• Dive into the future of legacy modernization based upon industry trends such as Extreme Transaction Processing (XTP), Grid computing, Cloud computing, etc.

Who this book is written for
Legacy system architects, project managers, program managers, developers, database architects and decision makers who own mainframe and heterogeneous systems, and are tasked with modernization will all find this book useful.

The book assumes some knowledge of mainframes, J2EE, SOA, and Oracle technologies. The reader should have some background in programming and database design.

About the Authors
Tom Laszewski has over 20 years experience in databases, middleware, software development, and building strong technical partnerships. He is currently the Technical Director of the Oracle Modernization Solutions team. He established the initial business and technical relationships with Oracle's modernization SIs and tools partners (the Oracle Modernization Ecosystem). His main responsibility is successful completion of all modernization projects initiated trough the partner ecosystem. Tom works on a daily basis with EDS and HP alliances, technical architectures, and account managers to ensure the success of joint modernization projects. He is also responsible for Oracle Modernization customer assessments and workshops, modernization reference architectures and modernization best practices.

As Product Manager of Modernization Solutions at Oracle, Jason Williamson is part of the team responsible for developing and implementing Oracle's Modernization strategy, cultivating a partner ecosystem for implementing solutions that modernize to Oracle products. Mr. Williamson works with product management within Oracle and its partners to drive integration, innovation and adoption for modernization to open systems.

Mr. Williamson has over 15 years experience in the software industry and has extensive knowledge in legacy modernization techniques and commercial software development. Prior to joining Oracle, Mr. Williamson was Global Product Management for BluePhoenix Solutions, where he was responsible for providing technical leadership and new product development within the legacy modernization space.