This week I’m spending time on-site with a HostBridge customer helping them develop CICS web services for some of their core applications.  The work I’m doing perfectly illustrates the value of using a web services approach for integrating and orchestrating CICS applications.

Here I am walking the streets of NYC, working on-site with a client. Photo Credit: Russ Teubner, HostBridge CEO

Background: .NET Service Timing Out

Yesterday, I helped this client use the HostBridge JavaScript Engine (HB.js), our mainframe JavaScript solution, to develop a web service that executes five different transactions and goes through 42 CICS screens.  This customer was using a .Net service, which the new, HB.js-created CICS web service will replace, to accomplish the integration and orchestration. However, the .NET service has been timing out after 30 seconds. 

We recently wrote about the advantages of doing CICS integration and orchestration work using JavaScript on the mainframe. One of the biggest advantages of this approach is performance. By keeping the integration and orchestration layer very close to the target CICS applications, there are often substantial performance gains. But, some say, doesn’t this burn more mainframe CPU cycles? Not the way we do it! This approach actually creates efficiencies that may save general processor CPU cycles while using less network bandwidth. And here’s the ace up the HostBridge sleeve: the orchestration scripts created with HB.js are all zIIP-eligible. This is the dream-combination of benefits: much better performing integrations that consume fewer resources.

The Result: From Seconds to Milliseconds – In a Day!

I spent a day helping this client use HB.js to write the web service referenced above. We tested and deployed it, and the results are impressive: the HB.js web service runs in just 650 milliseconds and only returns the data the client needs. We were able to cut 41 transactions/interactions with the host and the JavaScript mainframe web service is at least 30 times faster than the .NET service. Impressive results, but typical for this approach.

This example is very representative of the results we get for CICS shops that are trying to make their applications available, or trying to get them to participate as a component of hybrid IT applications. We’d love to work with you to achieve similar results! Contact us if you would like to know more.