Connect: Learn More

Connect utilizes our proprietary LegacyLink™ ODBC driver to provide your Windows applications direct, read-only connectivity to your mainframe data.

• Because it’s direct, you get the fastest possible performance. In addition, you see the data with zero latency, eliminating the need for operational data store or data mart technologies.
• Because it’s read-only, your data is secure. While your Windows applications have access to your mainframe data set, they have no ability to write back.
• Because it’s an ODBC driver, it’s incredibly easy to install and administer. The ODBC interface is the same one used by virtually all external data sources and provides a direct connection to your mainframe server.

It’s as if any data set you choose could be added to your data mart in a matter of minutes.

LegacyLink™ communicates directly with our native mainframe server via TCP/IP. There are no additional hardware or software components required for connectivity. This direct connection to our mainframe server offers a number of benefits:

• The low component count means low infrastructure. This translates directly into low costs, both to install and maintain.
• Since no additional software interfaces are required, you are up and running quickly, with your existing equipment.
• Having a mainframe resident server gives you the maximum access to your legacy data, including DB2, IMS, VSAM and sequential (QSAM) flat files. You don’t need any additional technologies to transform the data for access.

When mainframe resource constraints make direct access solutions impractical, Arbutus also enables you to easily offload your critical processing to open servers. Unlike typical open server implementations, Arbutus’s open servers (Windows and Linux) are fully compatible with all data set structures and data types encountered on your mainframe. This means that the process of staging data is as simple as a file transfer, with no data transformation required.

The result is you can implement a data mart style solution, with full access to all your Windows applications, in a matter of days.

This is a revolutionary approach to the problem of mainframe data connectivity.

Other Features:

Secure Operation

All mainframe access with Connect is through independently set up mainframe accounts. These accounts control the access rights of the individual user, to ensure that only the appropriate data is accessed.

Process the Most Complex Data

Connect includes the capability to access virtually any complexity of data, while presenting it in a standard tabular format. It is not limited to fixed length files, but can also handle variable length, multiple record type and even segmented file structures. As well, every data format supported by your mainframe, even bit level fields, can be automatically read and converted for use.

Combine Disparate Data Sources

Connect allows multiple source tables to be combined into a single view, using Data Relations. This creates a star schema model that directly accesses the source data sets. An important characteristic of this capability is there are few restrictions on the combination of even disparate data sources. You could easily have a consolidated table view that combines information from VSAM with information from IMS, DB2 and sequential data sets.

Proprietary Indexes

Connect includes the ability to create indexes on sequential data sets. While these are in a proprietary format, they essentially allow the file to behave like a VSAM file. This means you can have direct indexed access, even to data that does not have a native index.

Where native indexes exist, these are automatically used to optimize query performance.

Virtual Columns

Connect does far more than just provide access to your mainframe data sources. It also includes over 80 data manipulation functions, which can be used with virtual columns to implement virtually any business rule, calculation or transformation. Virtual columns are processed dynamically, without altering the source data, and are presented totally transparently to the end user.

Customizable Data Interface

Connect allows you full control over the data interface presented to users. The comprehensive semantic layer allows individualized customization for each set of users, controlling the content and naming of both tables and their columns.

Procedures

The Arbutus technologies include procedures based on a fully capable 4GL scripting language. These can be used to automate any process. Processes can be initiated manually, through a regular schedule, or can even happen automatically whenever an associated result data set is accessed. This allows essentially unlimited control over the business logic implemented.

Simplified Maintenance

All connectivity is maintained using our easy to use Windows administrative tool, Analyzer. Creating new table linkages is guided by a wizard based expert system. As well, in most cases, our metadata conversion can be used to automatically create the initial definition directly from your copybooks. Modifying table definitions is a simple point and click.