Micro Focus SOA Planner™
Understand, plan, and model core based services to get maximum value out of SOA projects.
SOA Planner™ is a server product designed to non-invasively provide a bird's eye view of user interactions with host systems, and therefore business processes, that serve as the foundation and starting point for SOA deployments. The data highlights the most used business transactions that may generate the most cost savings and benefit to the enterprise.
The first step to any SOA project is to take inventory of systems and system usage. Large enterprises use core systems for business critical applications. These systems are incredibly stable and because of this, have been able to run for many years. Typically, systems are maintained and run in a variety of locations and by a variety of departments. It can be a daunting challenge by the service architects to locate and service enable transactions on these systems. For example, a major health care provider has over 100 mainframes within the organization. On each mainframe, there are at least 10 applications, and within each application there are numerous transactions. Figuring out what transactions and on what servers to service enable is a challenge. With SOA Planner™ transactions are captured as they happen in everyday business by the end users. This will give the organization an understanding as to what systems are being used, what servers are being used, which applications and which transactions are used most. This report forms the beginnings of realistic service modeling to create a 'usable blueprint' of transactions.
Search for end user transactions by IP address, screen values, input types, time frames, and server address.
Discovered business transactions are returned and grouped for instant "service modeling" into OnWeb.
SOA Planner™ FAQ
Q: When is this product available?
A: December 4, 2006
Q: Do I have to modify my emulation clients?
A: No. SOA Planner™ runs on a network switch and requires no change to the user community or the core servers. SOA Planner™ is the only non-invasive service modeler and discovery tool available.
Q: What kind of emulation traffic is tracked?
A: Mainframe and System I traffic is tracked (3270 and 5250).
Q: What if I am not using a Micro Focus emulator?
A: SOA Planner™ tracks any and all emulation clients.
Q: Can't I just get this info from mainframe logs?
A: Yes, however, this data is difficult to acquire and requires mainframe administrators to get engaged. Additionally, this information is on a server by server basis. Many of today's business process cross multiple systems. SOA Planner™ shows you what those business processes are as they cross multiple systems.
Q: What can I do now that I have isolated a transaction?
A: SOA Planner™, working with OnWeb, can instantly model that transaction into a service. Doing this allows you to prototype services for deployment to see how the services will benefit the organization.
