Facing the challenge of legacy modernization across its diverse software infrastructure, Frost Bank, an investments and insurance subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, has installed Ivory Service Architect. Its a mainframe integration and SOA architecture from GT Software, a provider of rapid SOA development solutions that leverage mainframe resources.
Frost’s core banking applications come from vendors such as Fidelity Information Services and Shaw System Associates, and typically reside on the mainframe. Without requiring any changes to the service definition, Ivory supports the deployment of mainframe-based Web services across z/VSE, z/OS, CICS/TS, CICS, IMS, Windows, Wintel, UNIX, and Linux. Key benefits of this broader platform support include the ability to shift SOA-related workload off the mainframe, as well as the ability to leverage new mainframe MIPS-reducing hardware such as zIIP, zAAP, and IFL processors.
Uday Shetgeri, Executive Vice President, Application Development & Maintenance at Frost, said: “We had multiple connectivity technologies that were becoming difficult to support. Frost needed a standardized way of interfacing services to the core applications. We also wanted a contemporary paradigm like SOA/Web services that the mainframe programming staff could adapt and use said Shetgeri. That intersection made it necessary to standardize access to the mainframe as web services.”
Rob Morris, Chief Strategy Officer, GT Software, said: “Frost Bank’s Ivory implementation is an example of how companies today can efficiently and elegantly integrate the mainframe into their technology infrastructure, with maximum agility. At a time when cost savings and leveraging existing technology assets are critical business objectives, it is great to know that innovators like Frost Bank are achieving their integration goals using Ivory Service Architect. This demonstrated success continues to fuel GT Software’s commitment to delivering integration solutions that leverage SOA for maximum performance.”
