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Modernizing the mainframe: unleashing the power of XML and Web services.

Article Excerpt
Central Hudson Gas and Electric, a New York State utility company, wanted to find a way to improve its customer service by creating a Web-based platform where customers could view and retrieve bills online. Replacing or rewriting the company's 20-year old mainframe billing application wasn't an option. The mainframe worked great and could satisfy the company's growth plans for some time to come.

Instead, Central Hudson took the simpler route of deploying an XML integration server between its Customer Information Service system and an Internet portal. As a result of this very simple project, Central Hudson estimates it can generate yearly savings of $500,000 by offloading customer calls to a self-service Web site.

Central Hudson is not alone in taking a second look at its admittedly "unsexy" mainframe and finding impressive new sources of productivity and cost savings.

While many signs point to an economic recovery in 2004, it is clear

that chief executives are not prepared to return to the free-spending ways of the late 1990s. Chief information officers are being told they will simply have to do more. with the same or fewer resources. IT departments that have been trimmed in recent years through downsizing or outsourcing will be under intense pressure to meet new business-driven goals without double-digit increases to budgets.

The end result is that organizations will increasingly be forced to reevaluate the role and value of the mainframe in their operations. Business goals will dictate that information and resources kept on the mainframe must be made available to a much broader audience within and outside the corporation. The crucial question is how best to achieve those future e-business goals within the time and budget constraints set out by management.

For a great many organizations, the answer will be to implement standards-based technologies that will modernize the mainframe. By unlocking the power of technologies such as XML and Web services in the enterprise, companies will not only be able to mine the decades of experience invested in developing legacy applications, they will also be able to exploit a highly stable and powerful platform to meet their future business needs.

Evaluating the Strategies for Modernizing

Organizations will typically choose among four strategies for modernizing their mainframe applications. The first and least-dramatic strategy is to simply make sure that the mainframe is optimized as much as possible. This might include evaluating all databases and applications currently deployed in...