Web Enablement of Mainframe Applications: How Verastream Solutions Provide Speed and Ease When it comes to mainframe applications, target audiences and necessary skill sets have often been narrowly predefined. Never built with broader use in mind, these monolithic systems have their logic tightly intertwined with their data. The good news is that mainframe applications aren’t as “locked up” as once believed. New Micro Focus ® Verastream ® solutions can meet a variety of legacy modernization needs. Whether you want to build and orchestrate services or automate web-generated front ends, Verastream can help—without breaking your IT processes or your budget. The Case for Web Enablement The question is no longer about the ability to make better use of your legacy systems, but rather what approach makes the best use of them. Although service enablement is one good way to extend applications, there are some cases when that approach cannot be justified. If you want to retain existing application function- ality and user skill level for example, but simply remove navigation complexity, SOA could be overkill. Instead, you can just provide a new web interface and, as needed, simple controls over application workflow. Product Flyer Verastream Verastream at a Glance Accessibility: Provides safe, flexible access to host applications by allowing the use of terminal emulation. Using Verastream for Web Enablement? Verastream Host Integrator is both a tool and platform that can safely extend the reach of your enterprise assets. It follows two simple steps for web enablement: 1. Target the legacy application and decide what level of its UI to leverage. • For the desired auto-generated content, pick a default theme for the look and feel. • Use a GUI to examine, identify, and model the parts of the legacy UI where additional control is desired. 2. Create or extend Verastream-generated cascading style sheet (CSS) to define the mid-tier UI. • Leverage any mid-tier web development environment of your choice to pull in Verastream content as services or divs. • Create custom forms to govern presentation of any specific aspect of the legacy application that should not be processed through the standard or enhanced CSS. • Define custom CSS for control over display attributes and layout.
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Web Enablement of Mainframe Applications: How Verastream Solutions Provide Speed and Ease When it comes to mainframe applications, target audiences and necessary skill sets have often been narrowly predefined. Never built with broader use in mind, these monolithic systems have their logic tightly intertwined with their data. The good news is that mainframe applications aren’t as “locked up” as once believed. New Micro Focus® Verastream® solutions can meet a variety of legacy modernization needs. Whether you want to build and orchestrate services or automate web-generated front ends, Verastream can help—without breaking your IT processes or your budget.
The Case for Web EnablementThe question is no longer about the ability to make better use of your legacy systems, but rather what approach makes the best use of them. Although service enablement is one good way to extend applications, there are some cases when that approach cannot be justified. If
you want to retain existing application function-ality and user skill level for example, but simply remove navigation complexity, SOA could be overkill. Instead, you can just provide a new web interface and, as needed, simple controls over application workflow.
Product FlyerVerastream
Verastream at a Glance
Accessibility:
Provides safe, flexible access to host applications by allowing the use of termi nal emulation.
Using Verastream for Web Enablement?
Verastream Host Integrator is both a tool and platform that can safely extend the reach of your enterprise assets. It follows two simple steps for web enablement:
1. Target the legacy application and decide what level of its UI to leverage. • For the desired auto-generated content, pick a default theme for the look and feel. • Use a GUI to examine, identify, and model the parts of the legacy UI where additional
control is desired.
2. Create or extend Verastream-generated cascading style sheet (CSS) to define the mid-tier UI.
• Leverage any mid-tier web development environment of your choice to pull in Verastream content as services or divs.
• Create custom forms to govern presentation of any specific aspect of the legacy application that should not be processed through the standard or enhanced CSS.
• Define custom CSS for control over display attributes and layout.
Product FlyerWeb Enablement of Mainframe Applications: How Verastream Solutions Provide Speed and Ease
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Web enablement is a jump-start modernization option that offers compelling benefits—notably, less risk and less cost—that are not found with other methods. And advanced technologies are making it easier than ever to build a modern, full-featured UI that can help you quickly get the most from your legacy assets.
The Value of Web TechnologiesIf you’ve decided that web enablement (or “rejuvenation”) is the right approach for your enterprise, you might be wondering about the best way to get it accomplished. Modern web technologies can help you meet expectations about application performance across the spectrum of internal and external audiences. And real-life implementations have shown that web technologies consistently deliver the most effective, reliable results.
[Note: The web technologies discussed here are not to be confused with web services, which are typically associated with SOA. While it’s true that web services technologies are a subset of web technologies, we are concerned here only with presentation web technologies, especially as they relate to web enablement.]
Tools such as XML, HTML, and CSS seem to be made for projects like web enablement. In addition, you can make use of the common and current web skills already existing on your IT staff. And there’s another reason to consider web technologies: Standard web infrastruc-tures can be easily leveraged so, as new tech-nologies emerge, you’ll be on the right platform and ready to meet your next IT challenge.
The Verastream Host Integrator SolutionOf all the application-reuse solutions on the market, only Verastream Host Integrator can meet service enablement and web enablement needs with equal ease. With Verastream, you get rapid results because you can use existing
development skills and familiar IT tools. Whether your environment is IBM System z, IBM System i, UNIX, OpenVMS, or HP e3000, Verastream can help modernize your legacy assets—with-out disturbing mainframe-application code or daily business operations.
When doing a web enablement project using Verastream, you can take advantage of web technologies to allow the use of web browsers as ubiquitous clients. With web browsers be-coming more and more like the desktop itself, that functionality takes on added significance. When you use the Verastream method, your new browser applications won’t just be “re-skinned” HTML representations of legacy ap-plications; instead, they’ll be robust enough to provide the rich application experience users need to be as productive as possible.
An IT-specific advantage of Verastream web enablement is that you are reusing existing
applications, already proven in the enterprise. This reuse speeds time to market and mini-mizes the risks associated with a new applica-tion rollout.
Seamless Use of Open Web Technologies with Legacy SystemsAmong its many product features that sim-plify web enablement, Verastream offers Web Builder, a component that consistently emerges as one of the most popular among IT profes-sionals. The Web Builder feature set lets you speedily auto-generate content from the host application, where desired, while still allowing pinpoint directions to provide custom content. The functionality is based on standard web tech-nologies, so you can leverage your experienced web technology skill sets to turn your legacy ap-plications into modern yet safely controlled web applications for internal or external use.
With the Verastream design tool, you can maintain complete control of the selection process when converting green screens to web GUIs.
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For example, you might want to create a custom-ized form or specifically invoke a custom drop-down box in a single screen; with Verastream Web Builder, you can do it without having to manually tailor the rest of the application. This capability, combined with the use of standard CSS, divs, and HTML forms as the technology basis for layout, imparts the power of the web to build and extend your legacy applications.
You end up with a continuously extensible solu-tion that allows macro and micro control over presentation. In addition, you have the ability to build a legacy-application UI consistent with current web 2.0 workflow and behavior expectations.
Our WayWe’ve been solving mainframe access and in-tegration problems for almost 30 years. When we say that legacy systems are not as “locked up” as commonly believed, it’s because we have the skill and experience to stand behind that claim. In fact, our family of Verastream solutions are helping IT organizations worldwide respond to dynamic business demands without leaving their legacy assets behind.
If your legacy modernization needs are hard to assess, remember that Verastream is designed to take the guesswork out of your decision mak-ing. Just choose the capability you want—on-the-fly rejuvenation, customized presentation,
or full-blown SOA—and Verastream can help. What’s more, Verastream can do it without mak-ing the modernization project bigger than the original driving business requirement.
About Micro Focus
Since 1976, Micro Focus has helped more than 20,000 customers unlock the value of their business logic by creating en-abling solutions that bridge the gap from well-established technologies to modern functionality. The two portfolios work to a single, clear vision—to deliver innovative products supported by exceptional cus-tomer service. www.microfocus.com
