HostBridge Technology, the provider of HostBridge software for XML-enabling CICS, today announced that CA has certified the HostBridge integration software as interoperable with Advantage CA-Ideal for CA-Datacom (Advantage CA-Ideal), enabling organizations to integrate Advantage CA-Ideal applications with Web services platforms, application servers, or other host applications.

HostBridge runs under CICS on the mainframe and allows Web server applications to invoke Advantage CA-Ideal transactions using standard interfaces and returns data as XML documents or Web services in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Advantage CA-Ideal provides an interactive environment for the development, maintenance, and execution of Advantage CA-Datacom applications.

“As companies implement standard Web interfaces to more easily distribute critical application functionality across and beyond the enterprise, they need a simple, effective way to tap into proven mainframe applications,” said Maurice Donegan, director of product marketing at CA. “HostBridge fulfills this need by facilitating access to Advantage CA-Ideal applications on an as-needed basis or as part of a larger SOA deployment.”

HostBridge has the unique ability to allow developers to integrate legacy Advantage CA-Ideal applications using field names from panel definitions rather than row/column coordinates from screen scraping. With HostBridge, Web-based applications call Advantage CA-Ideal transactions without any changes to the existing programs.

Hostbridge has received the ca smart seal of excellence, which is awarded to products that integrate seamlessly with CA solutions, enabling customers to exploit best-in-class enterprise technologies while minimizing cost, time-to-benefit and risk.

“Our support for Advantage CA-Ideal was customer-driven,” says Russ Teubner, CEO of HostBridge Technology. “Group Health Cooperative was looking for a way to integrate their trusted legacy applications without terminal emulation or costly application reengineering. CA worked with us to create a HostBridge interface that provides access to the Advantage CA-Ideal applications without screen scraping on the middle tier or the Front End Programming Interface on the mainframe. This level of integration makes HostBridge the most reliable and scalable integration solution for XML-enabling Advantage CA-Ideal applications.”

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