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È disponibile la versione 7 di tcVISION

30.03.2023

La replica basata su record, la sincronizzazione, la migrazione dei dati o lo streaming dei dati in un data hub o in una piattaforma di BI rappresentano ancora una sfida particolare nell'ambiente delle architetture IT ibride con mainframe.

Ciò è dovuto alle caratteristiche speciali dell'archiviazione dei dati su mainframe, alle scorte di dati e ai formati di dati storicamente cresciuti e alla diminuzione del know-how dei mainframe a causa del cambio generazionale.

Con la nuova versione di tcVISION vogliamo tenere conto di tutto questo e abbiamo quindi integrato molte funzioni che facilitano l'implementazione e il funzionamento di una soluzione di scambio dati, sia per la replica o la sincronizzazione dei dati in tempo reale, sia per la migrazione dei dati da un sistema non relazionale a uno relazionale o per lo streaming di dati di massa nel cloud.

Una caratteristica particolare della nuova versione è la semplice inversione di una replica orientata al campo da sistemi mainframe a soluzioni on premise o cloud, come ad esempio Db2 > Oracle diventa una replica di Oracle > Db2 invertendo le definizioni del processo.

La gestione della versione 7 è stata ulteriormente ottimizzata in modo che la replica possa essere implementata senza competenze mainframe, in minor tempo e con maggiore automazione.

Saremo lieti di informarvi in dettaglio.

Estensione di tcVISION con Google Cloud BigQuery come nuovo target di dati

12.11.2022

La soluzione di replica di tcVISION è ora migliorata per supportare il formato specifico dei dati della piattaforma di BI Google BigQuery come ulteriore target di output di tcVISION.

In combinazione con Google Cloud BigQuery, gli utenti di tcVISION possono ora analizzare e valutare i loro dati mainframe in modo rapido e semplice, in tempo reale. L'installazione locale e l'amministrazione della piattaforma di analisi non sono più necessarie, poiché Big Query viene fornito come servizio gestito su Google Cloud.
Le attività nell'ambiente di un data warehouse o di BI possono quindi essere risolte in modo più rapido e scalabile.

Questo nuovo target di output di tcVISION può essere concesso in licenza opzionale ed è disponibile con le versioni 6.x e 7 di tcVISION.

Multi-directional real-time streaming of data using Kafka with integration of mainframe data

2022/04/14

Hybrid cloud architectures are the desired platform of the future for many enterprises. Enterprise customers face the challenge to integrate their legacy applications and data running on an IBM Mainframe into a sustainable hybrid IT architecture. 

Event Streaming with Apache Kafka is the ideal ecosystem for near real-time data exchange in hybrid IT environments. This can include IBM Mainframe, Linux, Unix, Windows, diverse cloud and Hadoop platforms on premise or in cloud systems and edge computing. Kafka as a central streaming platform is only one component in this scenario. For real-time data exchange of data across different platforms, a software component is also needed, that detects and captures data changes at different sources and passes them into a multi-directional Kafka universe.

For this task we have extended our tcVISION solution.

Now it is also able to act as a Kafka consumer and read JSON data from any topic. The structure of the JSON data is imported from a JSON schema and then transformed into our internal tcVISION repository logic, so that tcVISION can read this data and replicate it to the targeted output destination. The release of AVRO support is for Q2 2022. With Kafka becoming an increasingly important part of the hybrid architecture in many organizations, this enhancement to our solution thus provides the ideal completion for Kafka users to synchronize data of a database after it has been changed from microservices into Kafka. It does not matter if the database is located on a mainframe or on Windows, Linux, or Unix systems on premise or in the cloud. This enhancement now allows bidirectional, real-time replication in combination with the Kafka streaming platform based in combination with the Change Data Capture technologies, that are provided by tcVISION for most of the databases residing on a Mainframe and numerous non-Mainframe based database systems.

Enhancement of tcVISION to support Google Cloud Spanner as a new target of a change data capture process for mainframe and non-mainframe data

2022/03/31

With the growing importance of Google Cloud as part of hybrid IT architectures, we have enhanced our tcVISION solution to support the Google specific data format Spanner.

Spanner is a globally distributed NewSQL database from Google Inc. Spanner is the successor of the Google databases Bigtable and MegaStore. Google's Cloud Spanner is capable of supporting distributed workloads while being ACID compliant.

Google Spanner as data target of a replication can be licensed optionally and is available with tcVISION versions 6.x and version 7.

Java library Log4J

2021/12/14

The Log4j Java library is not implemented in our software products. The products we distribute are not affected by the Log4j exploit.

B.O.S. and Metastore Establish Strategic Partnership to Help Companies Accelerate Digital Transformation

2021/06/07

June 2021, Munich, Germany / Antwerp Belgium - B.O.S. Software Service und Vertrieb GmbH announces a partnership with Metastore to help enterprise customers with mainframe history in the Benelux and France accelerate their journey into the digital future.

In the course of digital transformation, many large enterprises and public institutions are focusing on renewing their IT. The future is a hybrid IT environment that includes on premises and multi-cloud platforms. New technologies such as data streaming, Big Data and Analytics are part of this strategy. Through the Corona pandemic, the adoption of Cloud environments and the pressure towards modernization has increased. However, most companies expect to continue running some of their workloads in on-premises data centres for the foreseeable future. Thus the near real-time exchange of data between multi-cloud and on-premises environments is crucial for the operation of a hybrid infrastructure and the company's success, as this realignment is often also associated with a corporate new direction. Customers with a mainframe history are confronted with particular challenges here, as the mainframe operating systems and data are not compatible with Linux, UNIX, Windows, and Cloud platforms.

 

Cryptography: Data Security Across System and Platform Boundaries

2020/12/21

The Internet protocol TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol) has been the standard protocol for almost two decades for sending data across continents, systems, and platforms.

However, the simplicity of this protocol becomes an issue when sharing sensitive company data, credit card information, or basically any data that is not intended to be seen by others.

For this purpose, the data must be transmitted over a secure connection.

In the field of cryptography, certain United States standards also apply. This standard is the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). With the z9 enterprise/business class, IBM already brought an adapter onto the market with the Crypto Express2, which was an asynchronous cryptographic coprocessor or accelerator. The adapter contained two cryptographic engines that can be configured independently as a coprocessor or as an accelerator.

Our solutions tcVISION and tcACCESS support the current cryptography solutions from IBM and are also compliant with the requirements of FIPS.

Transaction Safety for Data Streaming to Kafka

2020/05/04

Kafka now supports transactions which guarantees transaction safety when implementing data into Kafka with tcVISION.

In this context, a transaction is a sequence of processing steps that may only be executed together or not at all in order to keep a database consistent. The changes to the transaction will therefore only be adopted once the transaction has been fully processed. If, for any reason, the transaction is terminated before it is finished, for example due to a program error or a power failure, the data must be reset to the status it had before the transaction started. This step is called "rollback". If the end of the transaction is reached as expected, the change of the data is confirmed by a commit command and stored permanently.

This feature ensures that either all or none of the messages sent in a transaction arrive. An error during processing terminates the entire transaction, so none of the messages are transmitted. This also works when sending messages in several topics within a transaction.

To use this, a librdkakfa of version 1.4.0 or newer must be installed, since transactions were only implemented in this version.

COVID-19 Statement

2020/03/20

Each day we are confronted with new information about the COVID-19 virus and its effects on our daily life, our economy, the worldwide market, and companies of all sizes and industries.

As the world is in a state of emergency, we have restructured our business operations in a way that allows us to provide business continuity to our customers and partners. Our team is operating from different locations, and our employees are free to work from home. Our infrastructure makes it possible to do everything from home that would be done from the office. All BOS employees can still be reached through their office numbers. There are also various technical possibilities for web conferences as alternative communication channel for meetings, training, workshops, and presentations.

In these times, we have decided to limit all contact to customers and partners to web and video conferences, telephone, or email. All business trips and conferences are canceled until the situation has stabilized again. The health and safety of our customers are our main concern, so that we can continue providing our services as usual without any disruptions.

We are aware that these insecure times might last for weeks and even months and that they pose a big challenge for each and every one of us. But we are confident that we can overcome them together. It is a time of change that will be faced with flexibility, creativity, and team spirit.

We are always available for further inquiries.

CIO Applications Europe awards B.O.S. Software Service und Vertrieb GmbH as "Top 10 IBM Solution Providers 2019". (Kopie)

2019/11/11

OOP is the conference for software architecture. From February 3 to 7 in 2020, more than 170 lectures and workshops will provide deeper insights into topics such as agility, digital transformation, domain driven design, programming languages, or software development.

We are happy to participate as silver sponsor. Join us at our exhibition booth to explore data integration in heterogeneous systems!

OOP - Software Meets Business

2019/10/05

B.O.S. Software Service und Vertrieb GmbH was chosen as cover story of the special edition "Top 10 IBM Solution Providers 2019" by CIO Applications Europe Magazine. CIO Applications Europe therefore recognizes B.O.S. Software as one of the leading solution providers in IBM z mainframe architectures.

B.O.S.' integration solutions are promoting and driving innovation.

Read the full article

tcVISION supports Amazon Redshift

2019/09/02

tcVISION now supports the data warehouse service Redshift in the Amazon Cloud. The connection between tcVISION and Amazon Redshift enables enterprises to easily integrate data from z Mainframe or distributed environments into Amazon Redshift. The tcVISION Change Data Capture technology ensures that the data warehouse is always supplied with current data in real time.

The Redshift data warehouse offers high parallelization of queries and requires hardly any administration effort. tcVISION is the ideal addition for integrating data into the Redshift data warehouse technology for customers who need to keep their data as up-to-date as possible.

tcVISION supports Elasticsearch

2019/08/09

Elasticsearch is a search and analytics engine commonly used for full-text search, security intelligence, business analytics, and operational intelligence use cases. Elasticsearch automatically stores the original document and adds a searchable reference to the document in the cluster’s index.

tcVISION can easily transfer data to Elasticsearch in real time, saving time and effort. Through tcVISION‘s mainframe sources, business-critical mainframe data can be used for analytical purposes in Elasticsearch at the touch of a button.

tcVISION Extension to Support Microsoft Azure Cloud

2019/06/12

As of now, more relational databases running in a Microsoft Azure Cloud are supported. EventHub and Blob Storage with Microsoft's security procedures also supported. The integrated Blob Storage support facilitates resource-efficient processing. The processing can be customized to the customer-specific environment, because different processes can be used.

tcVISION supports Adabas for zIIP

2019/06/06

tcVISION was further extended to include the many advantages offered by Adabas for zIIP. Infrastructure or application functions can be offloaded to a more cost-efficient IBM z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP). Adabas for zIIP lets you significantly lower your costs and increase your capacities while not affecting performance and reliability. tcVISION fully supports Adabas for zIIP as of now.

tcVISION on the AWS Marketplace

2019/03/26

tcVISION Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) are officially released on the AWS Marketplace. An enterprise with mission critical data in a mainframe environment can rapidly deploy databases globally within minutes, and with minimal administration requirements.

tcVISION’s GUI modeling and mapping, and ease of migrating data to AWS makes it an ideal choice for modernizing large mainframe environments. tcVISION can synchronize mission critical data from a mainframe system on AWS. Real-time, bidirectional data synchronization enables changes on either system to be reflected on the other system (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table on AWS is reflected on the mainframe database). This allows businesses to modernize an application on AWS without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system.

read more

B.O.S. is Confluent Partner

2019/01/23

Confluent was established by the developers of the open source solution Apache Kafka and provides a leading streaming platform that helps companies in maximizing their data value.

The partnership with Confluent makes it possible for users to easily integrate data of enterprise applications from both mainframes and distributed systems into their streaming platform in realtime, and to access those real-time streams with business data.
tcVISION significantly simplifies real-time analytics and BI solutions as well as application modernization, which include the offload of data and applications. tcVISION also considerably reduces the effort for implementation and realisation of the Confluent Streaming Platform with integration of real-time data from mainframe and distributed systems.

B.O.S. offers one of the leading data integration solutions for the comprehensive realisation of data exchange (data synchronisation / replication / migration / distribution) in heterogeneous environments. The integrated “minimal impact” Change Data Capture Technology for various mainframe, LUW, and Cloud based data sources accelerates the establishment of modern real-time enterprise architectures.

tcVISION is a complete integration platform. It includes the entire data exchange including extracting the data from the source, the data transformation for processing at the target, and the direct apply into the targets without buffering.

 

B.O.S. Implements an Agentless Connection to Db2 z/OS

2018/08/24

The tcVISION solution offers connections to a variety of databases and file systems on z/OS, z/VSE, z/VM, and different operating systems in the open world (Linux, UNIX, Windows). Detailed information can be found here.

A new connection type has been added for Active Log processing in Db2 z/OS:

A permanent active z/OS tcVISION agent is no longer required for the processing of mainframe Db2 z/OS Active Logs. This “agentless” connection analyses the Db2 Active Log and extracts the changed data using a Db2 UDT (User Defined Table) and a connection to Db2 z/OS via DRDA or a Db2 Client.

Heinrich von Parseval, Director Research and Development: "The installation of tcVISION in a z/OS Db2 environment has been further simplified because of this additional connectivity to Db2 z/OS. A tcVISION Host-Agent is not required anymore, but tcVISION can still monitor the Db2 Active Log and extract changed data in near real-time without using noticeable resources on the mainframe. This is an interesting perspective – maybe even for future development efforts of tcVISION."

B.O.S. Partner Conference in Haar

2018/04/27

Partnerships are the base of a successful and world-wide representation.
B.O.S. Software Service und Vertrieb GmbH is partnering with renowned software companies in the USA, Europe, Asia, South Africa, and Australia. The existing customer base in these parts of the world is proof that the partnerships are successful.

B.O.S. invites the international partners to a conference in regular intervals. This year, the conference was conducted in Haar in April. B.O.S. presented their ongoing developments and gave insights and impressions of new releases and versions of the software solutions tcVISION and tcACCESS.
The partners also actively participated in the conference. The dynamics of the IT world, especially caused by BigData, cloud computing and new database technologies were discussed and the partners were shown how the B.O.S. solutions cooperate with these new technologies. Different customer implementations were discussed and the strategy for a furthermore successful cooperation was consolidated.

B.O.S. is convinced that the partnerships* will continue to be the guarantee for a successful distribution of the software solutions tcVISION and tcACCESS.

*B.O.S. partners:

  • Treehouse Software - USA
  • The amod – USA
  • Bateleur – South Africa
  • CCA Software – Australia
  • Yam Pong Corporation - Taiwan
  • JVL/Syspertec – Frankreich
  • UP Consulting – Spain
  • Team Data – Skandinavia
  • B.O.S. Software S.r.l. – Italy
  • Formula Opensoft – Benelux
  • B19 Data Solutions Ltd. - United Kingdom

tcVISION Supports MySQL / MariaDB

2017/11/14

The world-wide recognition and great popularity of the relational databases MySQL and especially MariaDB is increasing. MariaDB is available as an open source database management system and is therefore a cost and license free alternative to relational DBMS in the client server environment that require a license. B.O.S. Software Service und Vertrieb takes account of this trend: tcVISION supports MySQL and MariaDB as a target system for replication processes. Both databases can also be used as the tcVISION repository.

The MySQL / MariaDB APPLY function is available for the implementation of data from other data sources in the distributed environment with MySQL / MariaDB as target, such as mainframe Db2, Adabas, IMS/DB, VSAM, Oracle, Db2 LUW, etc.

The initial load of MySQL / MariaDB databases (BULK LOAD) can be performed using the internal MySQL / MariaDB loader. The connectivity to the two databases has been implemented using the official MySQL / MariaDB interface. The wide range of database systems and platforms supported by tcVISION is unique. This is backed up by the constant growth of world-wide installations.

B.O.S. Products Support the New Version of z/OS 2.3

2017/10/10

The most recent version of the z/OS operating system (Version 2.3) is generally available since September 29, 2017. In addition to new functions and technical enhancements, IBM positions the new operating system flagship as an answer to the “rapid evolution toward hybrid IT architectures”.
Both B.O.S. solutions tcVISION and tcACCESS support this new version of the z/OS operating system.

Heinrich von Parseval, CTO and Director Research & Development: "It has always been our constant effort to provide a timely support for new versions of the IBM z/OS AND z/VSE operating systems. This support is important for customers who want to perform an immediate upgrade to the new version. This B.O.S. philosophy basically applies to all operating system platforms used by our software solutions".

Customers of tcACCESS and tcVISION who are already using or planning to use z/OS 2.3 can download the current product versions in our download area.

tcACCESS and tcVISION Listed Under "Software Developers Supporting z/OS V2R3"

2017/10/10

IBM publishes a list of all software products which support the new version 2.3 of the z/OS operating system. See the list

Elisabeth Schwarz, Managing Director of B.O.S.: "It is our claim and ambition to provide a timely support for new releases of operating systems for our software solutions. In the case of z/OS 2.3 we have provided this support in time – like we always have in the past. Both B.O.S. solutions tcACCESS and tcVISION have been included by IBM in the directory of software developers supporting z/OS 2.3."

Customers of tcACCESS and tcVISION who are already using or planning to use z/OS 2.3 can download the current product versions in our download area.

B.O.S. Supports IBM's New POWER8 Platform

2017/09/14

"IBM POWER Systems offer servers built with open technologies and designed for mission-critical applications. Today’s business leaders demand servers designed for BigData that are optimized, secure, and adapt to changing workload requirements."*

The software solutions from B.O.S. help customers share their data in real-time across multiple platforms including mainframe, distributed, Hadoop and Cloud.
B.O.S. supports the new POWER8 platform with their software solutions. Heinrich von Parseval, CTO and Director Research & Development: "We are impressed by Linux on IBM POWER8 and the high performance and scalability of this trend-setting technology."
* Quote from IBM

tcVISION Supports SAP Hana

2017/08/24

With tcVISION mainframe data and data from the distributed applications environment (LUW) can now be replicated or migrated easily and quickly to SAP Hana. There is no programming effort required.

  • No additional middleware required
  • The data volume is reduced to a minimum (compressed and transferred in "raw format").
  • Comprehensive data mapping simplifies the selection of data and creates transparency.
  • Intuitive user interface and various wizards reduce the implementation time to a minimum.
  • Automatic character conversion between the systems and platforms.
  • The integration of data from different source data models (relational and non-relational) on different platforms to SAP Hana is fully supported.

PostgreSQL Support in tcVISION is Available Now

2017/07/17

tcVISION replicates data on the basis of changes in real-time and automatically implements the changes into the target systems. From now on the object-oriented, relational DBMS is also supported – it is available as Open Source and therefore a cost and license free alternative to relational DBMS in the client server environment that require a license. PostgreSQL is supported as source and target of a data replication or synchronisation with tcVISION.

The PostgreSQL Change Data Capture option is an optional component of tcVISION; It automatically captures changes in the PostgreSQL DBMS and replicates them into the respective target systems. The PostgreSQL APPLY option is available for the implementation of data from other data sources in the distributed environment with PostgreSQL as target, such as mainframe Db2, Adabas, IMS/DB, VSAM, Oracle, Db2 LUW, etc. Therefore PostgreSQL users can exchange data in heterogeneous system environments easily and quickly without programming effort. The migration from an existing DBMS in PostgreSQL is also easily realisable. Special database knowhow is not required.

tcVISION Now Supports IAM Files – a Solution of Innovation Data Processing

2017/05/09

"The Innovation Access Method (IAM) is a transparent alternative to VSAM KSDS, ESDS and (as a cost option) AIX and RRDS files. The savings achieved over VSAM can vary, but IAM typically uses 40-80% less I/Os, 20-70% less CPU and 30-70% less DASD. Savings in batch elapsed times and online response times can range from 20-80%." (INNOVATION Data Processing)

Users of IAM files now have the possibility of replicating data into any DBMS and NoSQL DBMS systems in the distributed systems environment as well as into Cloud and Hadoop platforms in real-time. Thus, latest technology can easily be used for Analytics and Business Intelligence. tcVISION also supports bidirectional synchronization between IAM files and DBMS in the distributed environment. Therefore data between – for example – Oracle, SQL Server, Db2 LUW, Informix, Adabas LUW can be synchronized in real-time without programming effort. The transparent integration of IAM files in a heterogeneous system environment can be easily and quickly implemented.

Fully Integrated Connection of Mainframe Data to Apache Kafka

2017/05/02

tcVISION now allows streaming change data directly to Apache Kafka.

New features:

  • Propagate change data to Apache Kafka in real-time
  • The currently supported protocols are JSON, Avro and CSV
  • Connection using official interfaces ensures a fast and simple implementation
  • Any data source supported by tcVISION can be used as data source:
    • Mainframe: Adabas, Db2, VSAM, CICS, DATACOM, IMS and others
    • Open systems: Adabas, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Db2 LUW and others

Replication of Data to MongoDB

2016/09/05

tcVISION now fully supports MongoDB as a replication target

New features:

  • Join several tables into one MongoDB document
  • No message queueing necessary
  • No additional middleware required
  • Available for UNIX/Linux and Windows
  • Load processes can be parallelized for highly efficient data transfer
  • Integrated key management for non-indexed data
  • Detailed monitoring, logging and integrated alert notification

Direct Access to Mainframe Data from Hadoop Systems

2016/06/24

The tcACCESS JDBC server now supports direct access to mainframe data from Hadoop systems.

New features:

  • JDBC access to relational mainframe data e.g. Db2
  • JDBC to non-relational mainframe data such as Adabas, VSAM, Datacom, IMS, etc.
  • Access to mainframe data is completely transparent via the JDBC driver
  • No additional middleware required
  • Hadoop developers do not need mainframe knowledge

B.O.S. User Symposium 2016

2016/06/06-07

The User Symposium was held in Munich from June 6 to 7, 2016. Like all other past Symposiums B.O.S. and the users actively participated in the event. Interesting presentations and user experiences together with presentations about new versions of tcACCESS and tcVISION, the current challenges IT is facing like BigData, Cloud or databases were the highlights of the successful Symposium.