IBM's IMS 10 Takes Next Step in SOA

[Sunite]

IBM's IMS 10 Takes Next Step in SOA
By Jennifer LeClaire
October 10, 2007 11:41AM

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According to analyst Charles King, IBM's new Information Management System 10 is a great example of IBM leveraging its deep technical expertise to develop and deliver solutions for customers' fundamental business challenges. In most large enterprises, he explained, heterogeneous I.T. infrastructures are the rule, not the exception.

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   On Wednesday, IBM unveiled Information Management System (IMS) 10, the latest version of its hierarchical database Relevant Products/Services management and transaction system.

The software delivers enhanced XML and Web services capabilities that Big Blue promises will make it easier for customers to use information as a strategic asset. The path to those benefits means evolving existing business applications to service-oriented architectures (SOAs).

Arvind Krishna, vice president for IBM's data servers division, said IMS 10 marks a first. It's the first time, he said, that standard XML query language will be available to hierarchically structured data. "This will help customers simplify their development environments while continuing to realize the proven performance benefits and data integrity of IMS," Krishna said in a statement.

The IMS-SOA Connection

IBM said the IMS 10 announcement supports its cross-company Information on Demand initiative. Specifically, IMS 10 features new technologies and enhancements that aim to alter and improve the way information is stored, managed, and accessed in mainframe-computing environments.

IMS 10 includes new XQuery, Enhanced XML, and Web services support, opening up IMS to off-the-shelf, third-party tools and offering a standard, shareable integration Relevant Products/Services point between IMS and other industry databases. IMS 10 supports open standards such as XML, SOAP, Java, and JDBC. In addition, the IMS SOAP gateway has been enhanced.

"The IMS SOAP gateway enables Volvo to exploit SOA in their development environment," Anders Ohrnberg, senior IMS technical specialist for Volvo Information Technology, said in a statement. "Because of this, we can interoperate with applications independent of location, programming language, and platform. This enables reuse and maximizes business flexibility."

What IBM Does Best

According to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, the new version of IMS is a great example of one of the things IBM does best: leverage its deep technical expertise to develop and deliver solutions for customers' fundamental business challenges. In most large enterprises, he explained, heterogeneous I.T. infrastructures are the rule, not the exception.

"New XQuery, Enhanced XML, and Web services support features should make it easier for companies to access and share information residing in disparate databases including IMS," King assured, noting that broader XML and Java tooling supporting open standards is likely to spark new application development and increase opportunities for organizations to reap the benefits of SOA.

The introduction of IMS 10 completes an upgrade of the entire IBM data server portfolio, including the new DB2 9 "Viper" and Informix (IDS) 11 "Cheetah" data servers, as well as new versions of the UniVerse and UniData (U2) data servers. IMS 10 will begin shipping worldwide on October 26.