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Data is one of the largest and most valuable assets of any business. An organization’s ability to share and deliver trusted information is not only essential to the success of that business, but provides a competitive advantage. However, IMS™ data hasn’t always been easily accessible and shareable in the way that supports the growth and agility of businesses. To meet these needs, IMS needed to overcome two obstacles: connectivity to the data and the lack of industry standards as part of the data access model for IMS. The IMS Version 11 Open Database solution addresses the challenges of modernizing and standardizing both IMS database access and application development by providing an integrated distributed data access solution. Now you can more easily integrate IMS assets with other products and platforms across your enterprise and the Internet.
Figure 1. IMS Universal drivers provide Java applications with access to IMS databases
The IMS Universal drivers, part of the Open Database Solution, are software components that provide Java applications with connectivity and access to IMS databases from z/OS® and from distributed environments through TCP/IP.
IMS provides three Universal drivers that support multiple standards and runtime environments:
- IMS Universal DB Resource Adapter - A JCA-compliant resource adapter that provides all the services that the JEE platform provides, including connection, transaction, and security management
- IMS Universal JDBC Driver - A Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver that supports access to IMS data by using SQL calls
- IMS Universal DL/I Driver - An IMS-specific Java™ API for DL/I that can access IMS data by using Java methods that are based on IMS DL/I semantics
The term Universal is used because the drivers share the same common framework and can be deployed in multiple platforms and runtime environments. Because the drivers have environment-detection protocols built into them, application developers do not need to be concerned with where the application will be deployed–the drivers handle all runtime environment and platform-specific needs.
| Alignment with industry standards |
To align with industry standards, the IMS Open Database solution focuses on a valuable commodity in the marketplace: Java programming skills. The ability to tap into this skill base opens significant opportunities for new IMS application development. The standard data access interface in Java today is JDBC. JDBC offers support for SQL, which is used almost exclusively across all major database management systems. The IMS Open Database solution provides an implementation of JDBC, coupled with an engine for SQL processing.
The main choice for many application architects is enterprise application development in tightly managed application servers. The Java EE and Java Connection Architecture standards are built around integration into these server runtime environments. WebSphere® Application Server, IBM’s marquee Java EE server, adheres to these standards, as does the IMS Open Database solution. Application developers can now deploy their applications into the WebSphere Application Server runtime environment and take full advantage of its management, connection pooling, and security capabilities.
Historically, IMS has been grounded to the mainframe, making it difficult for applications to access IMS data in real-time from any platform other than z/OS. Even when connectivity isn’t an issue, the lack of standards-based development has hindered new application development.
Strategically, IMS Connect has been the gateway for TCP/IP access to IMS transactional resources. The IMS Open Database solution enhances IMS Connect so that it now provides access to IMS database resources via a new CSL address space: Open Database Manager (ODBM).
To provide programmatic access to IMS data, the Universal drivers can be deployed in the following runtime environments:
- IMS Java dependent regions
- WebSphere Application Server for distributed platforms
- WebSphere Application Server for z/OS
- CICS
- DB2® and DB2 for z/OS stored procedures
- Standalone Java SE
The drivers can run on both distributed and z/OS platforms. TCP/IP is used to access IMS data from distributed platforms, which include Windows®, Linux®, AIX®, Sun Solaris, UNIX, and Linux for System z®. Pre-existing assembler interfaces are used to access IMS data from z/OS runtime environments.
The ability to build controlled data access layers is one key advantage of using the Open Database solution. Java EE, JDBC, or DL/I developers don’t need direct access to the data. Instead, an organization can choose the access paradigm, which can be built around Web services or in-house data access APIs—both of which are supported by the solution.
Security is an integral part of any data solution, particularly in a solution that offers multiple access paths to IMS data. The Open Database solution does not compromise security in any way—authentication of all clients can be enforced at various layers. For example, in a WebSphere Application Server (Java EE) runtime environment, you can use encrypted credentials to manage the security credentials, instead of having the application manage them. RACF® on z/OS (or an equivalent security product) is used to both authenticate the user and ensure that the user has the authorization to the PSB. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol is supported for the type 4 Universal drivers, to ensure that your communication layer is encrypted. Rest assured that the Open Database solution offers a robust security model to fit your needs.
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