Abstract:

SOLA - Mainframe SOA. What does it mean to integrate the mainframe with SOA, and why is SOA much more than Web Services? Why is SOA Governance so crucial for mainframe SOA? How can the mainframe enjoy the benefits of a loosely-coupled architecture while retaining the quality, reliability and low-cost of the Z platform? Jim Crew, a pioneer in mainframe SOA integration, will discuss how the mainframe service architect can have it all:

Jim Crew, SOA Software

Vice President, SOLA

Jim Crew is the inventor and driving force behind SOLA - SOA Software's mainframe web services product offering "Service Oriented Legacy Architecture". SOLA is the result of work that Mr. Crew did at Merrill Lynch, where he was Director of Infrastructure with responsibility for Database Administration. A large part of his responsibilities was improvement of the overall infrastructure, particularly that of mainframe integration. Mr. Crew recognized that there were tremendous efficiencies to be gained by introducing Service Oriented Architecture to the mainframe and in 2001 he chartered a team to explore the possibilities offered by using Web Services to re-use existing mainframe assets in composite applications. After considerable research Mr. Crew determined that the key to integrating the mainframe into a Service Oriented Architecture was to build a tool that took advantage of the reliability and scalability of the mainframe while offering full conformance to Service Oriented Architecture standards.

This work was hugely successful at Merrill Lynch where SOLA is extensively deployed in production, running 10,000,000 transactions a day and forming the backbone of the mainframe integration infrastructure. Thanks to the ease of use and efficiency of SOLA Merrill estimates that it has saved at least $42,000,000 while making the firm more agile and improving the reliability of the environment.

In late 2005 Merrill Lynch sold SOLATM to SOA Software of Los Angeles California. Mr. Crew and his development team went with the software to join SOA where they are busy further developing SOLA and integrating it into SOA Software's award winning SOA Governance products "Service Manager", "Policy Manager", "Repository Manager" and "Portfolio Manager".

Mr. Crew is a 28 year veteran of the Financial Services industry.

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