GT Software, a leading provider of rapid SOA development solutions, today announced release 3.6 of Ivory Service Architect, with enhancements to Ivory's already top-class usability and productivity features.
Ivory Service Architect consists of Ivory Studio, a graphical modeling environment; Ivory Server, a high-performance SOAP processor with runtime service orchestration; and the recently-introduced Ivory Server for Batch.
With version 3.6, Ivory has increased its renowned robustness in several important areas. Enhanced fault handling capabilities provide improved reliability, enabling developers to keep processing Ivory mainframe services despite a Web service failure in mid-process. Even if Web services that are running off the mainframe (whether inside the company or not) are not reachable, Ivory can now detect the failure, and enable the developer to continue processing or send a fault back to the original requestor.
Ivory 3.6 now also includes nested array support, which automates the moving of data between COBOL programs that leverage multi-dimensional (nested) arrays and their corresponding XML/SOAP elements. This dramatically shortens development time and simplifies Ivory projects by making the diagrams simpler and more understandable.
The Ivory Studio also achieved certification with Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0 and Windows Vista. This ensures Ivory's already impressive usability is even better leveraging the newer controls and experiences that are enabled with the .NET Framework 2.0.
The new version also includes enhanced support for wizard processing; and expanded Ivory Wizard processes for importing source, both resulting in productivity improvements, especially for complex scenarios where legacy mainframe systems are being modernized for SOA.
"These improvements were suggested by our user community, a loyal and active group that is growing at unprecedented rates," said Rob Morris, chief strategy officer for GT Software. "They reflect our constant commitment to preserving mainframe assets while assisting our customers in their move towards SOA and Web services."
Ivory Service Architect supports deployment of mainframe-based Web serviiices across the widest range of platforms, giving organizations broad flexibility in where they choose to house SOA-related workload. No other solution on the market today offers such a variety of options for mainframe SOA. Without requiring any changes to the service definition, Ivory Service Architect 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 zAAP processors.