Hey, friends.
For over 30 years, banks,
governments, manufacturers,
and other industries
have relied on Microsoft
integration technology
- such as Host Integration Server
- to access
and work with data
on their midrange and mainframe systems.
Now, you can add Azure Logic
Apps to your list of options
for solving
your mission-critical integration needs.
Harold Campos is here to show me
how it works, today on Azure Friday.
Hey, friends.
I'm Scott Hanselman and Azure Friday.
Today I'm chatting with Harold Campos,
who's going to talk to me
about cloud native capabilities,
integrating with mainframe
and midranges. How are you, sir?
I'm good. I'm good. How are you, Scott?
All good?
I am - you're scratching a neuron in my brain
that I haven't thought about in many,
many years.
I did a lot of mainframe work
at both Nike and a bunch of banks.
I did a ton of integration work
throughout the nineties
and during the Y2K
stuff working in banks.
So this is very exciting
that we're still keeping these mainframes
chugging and bringing them to the cloud.
Yes, it is.
It is.
Scott and mainframes
are still around and
We have to work with them as part of
their mission critical scenarios
for our customers.
Yeah, I understand that
a huge amount of people
are putting their data on mainframes.
They're still out there.
Mainframes exist,
they're not old and legacy.
They are fundamental
to so many businesses.
So when the world moved to
the cloud, mainframes came for the ride,
You are right.
So let me let me show you
a little bit about the evolution
of the mainframes over over the last
70 years
or so, mainframes days
started around 1950,
and they've been evolving the hardware
and the networking has been evolving
from what you used to have
back in the day
to what, what you have today.
But basically at its core,
mainframes remain the same.
So, on the inside,
the applications, they are left
mostly untouched,
which poses a challenge
because there is a lot of data
and a lot of mission critical systems
being hosted in those devices.
Despite their modernization,
it is estimated that
there are trillions of dollars.
that were invested
back in the day
in SNA applications,
which was a the predecessor of TCP/IP right?
as applications
where linked to the way
how protocols work as you know so then
they are still around and they represent
they represent...
How can I say this one of these
situations that customers
they have to deal with on a daily basis,
mission critical customers
like banks, as you say.
Now, what we've been working on
over the last few years
is that we've been...
do you remember Host Integration Server, Scott?
...
Oh my goodness, Host integration server,
I want to say '93, '94,
we would use that to talk
to all kinds of big iron.
so well,
we still have Host Integration Server.
We support the product, we have it
the current version.
is Host Integration Server 2020.
But what we've been doing over
the last five years
is we've been,
introducing these core technologies
of integration.
That Host
Integration Server has to Logic Apps.
So, now
the majority of the capabilities
that you have in Azure Logic Apps
in Host Integration Server they
are now available in Logic Apps via
Logic Apps connectors,
there is,
there is, there's been efforts to,
to support our customers
in the mainframe modernization space.
There are different approaches
for mainframe modernization.
There is lift and shift, code conversion,
extension of capabilities, and
rewriting these mainframe systems.
And on top of these
there are other patterns.
And we've been learning from customers
that customers are really pursuing
or they are asking for help
on managing the dependencies
because it's not just about
migrating the mainframe, it's
not just about migrating the application,
but what happens, what is with
what is left behind on premises, right?
You still have to deal with those systems
or how is it
that you interact
with what
you modernize to the cloud
so for those scenarios
where we have logical Apps,
and Host Integration
Host Integration Server.
capabilities
that allow customers to continue
using these legacy assets
in the in
what is left from the mainframe
or the dependencies for the mainstream
that have been migrated to the cloud
to Azure.
And I think
I think
something that is worth mentioning,
is that if we see this
from a cloud perspective,
we have a workflow a logic apps workflow
which
which has different type,
different types of connectors
which allow integration
with different types of systems
on premises or in the cloud making a hybrid
architecture.
But we also have all, all of these
connectors, these legacy
integration connectors mainframe
and midranges integration connectors
like IBM MQ, Host files, 3270
to interact between
screens, CICS systems, DB2 databases.
IMS transaction managers
and an IMS database,
which is a hierarchical database.
So if you see the world from a
from a cloud perspective
and the enablement that brings the cloud
and additional scenarios with software
that allows to enable and empower
all of these scenarios
that today we have,
like for instance,
dealing with terminals
or printers or ATMs.
Every time that you go to an ATM,
you are likely using host
integration server
to interact with the mainframe
and also the capabilities
that that you can gain
if you continue modernizing this work
with any of our partners.
So then logic Apps becomes the
the the product for hybrid
integration for legacy
mainframes and midranges.
Right.
Well, if I may, one thing
I want to comment on
is that with Azure Logic Apps, you know,
you have these wonderful Lego blocks
and, you know, I like to think about it.
In the modern world,
there's like blob storage and HTP
and you can go
and do these things and you,
you then start adding
in other things like service bus
and file systems,
all of those pieces
that Azure provides
are available to you in a workflow.
Why shouldn't your big iron
be available to you as well?
I should be able to call a mainframe
and put something in storage
and make an HTP call.
And they're all peers in that wonderful
logic app's workflow
and it sounds like that's
what you're making possible.
absolutely absolutely And on top of HTTP
you know
I think
I think what sometimes this
is a bit of a challenge to explain to
to to to to folks is
that a
mainframe is not only a server right.
A Mainframe is really an ecosystem.
You know, you host applications,
you host data,
you host messaging systems, right?
So then integrating with them, it's
it's, it's, it's, it's something
you have to see holistically
Right? from different angles
and different protocols and different
approaches and patterns and
technologies.
So let me show you
a little bit of what
we have today, with
with
Logic Apps on our mainframe and Midranges connectors
we think is to Yeah, let's do it.
let me let me open the portal.
Okay. So in the portal
I go to my logic app,
I have a Logic App
that is called Azure Friday of right here.
Right.
One important
aspect to manage in it
to set up this logic app
to, to, to have is the VNET integration
capability enabled
because you definitely
want your mainstream not to be exposed.
So you want to use of being in
a virtual network
to interact with your mainframe and then
open the right ports and
to make sure that you
have access
to the right facilities in the mainframe.
This workflow that I have here
consolidates all of our connectors.
You have all of the connectors
that we have available
for mainframes and midranges integration.
We have, let me
show you this amount.
So this is after the workflow
and that's the ability
to integrate with using 3270,
which is a protocol
that was created to work.
with screens
the screens that you are very familiar
with, right?
The DB2 connector
that uses that TCP IP connectivity
to gett into our DB2
database
host files offline connector,
which is a connector.
that has a parser for binary files
and we will see how it works.
We have a connector for IMS systems.
IMS is
...
one of the oldest systems around.
It was built the Apollo mission
back in 1966.
You have the CICS connector
for the CICS system,
who was born in 1968
and you have also an MQ Connector.
So then all of these connectors,
they are available Logic Apps.
So then now with logic apps,
you can integrate all of these
different types of systems
from our workflow.
And to be honest,
I think,
I think this is something
that the team has been working very hard
and we are so happy with the outcome
because in the end
it allows
true mission critical integration
with these legacy systems.
A couple of things to add
before before running this short demo
is that for some of the connectors
that you have that I just presented,
you have to create a definition
that is based in copybook copy files,
which are basically a representation
of the COBOL programs
that represent the parameters of each one
of these legacy programs like these.
And for CICS
we require one, for IMS,
we require another, another type
for a data structure.
We require another
structure which we are available.
We in visual Studio, we can create
a mirror of the structure using
Visual Studio
and
in a file that we call HIDX: Host
Integration Definition
XML file, that basically represents,
you know,
your your
your binary file,
your binary structure,
your COBOL copybook in the mainframe.
So then once
you have to find all of these.
So then the other thing
that you have to have
available is access to the system.
So you have to enable the right protocols
on then to be able to,
to integrate with, with this system.
via the core
protocols, either
HTTP or SNA over IP, or whatever it is
is that you require by your system.
Now let me go back to the demo.
What what is going to happen
is that I'm going to upload a file
which is a binary file
from from my machine.
I will look for the file and
this is a dataset that I created that
typically is generated by
the mainframe. Right.
And then what is going to happen
is that this workflow will read
the binary data of this file and will
pass it
to some of these connectors
and then it
will trigger some of these activities
in this workflow before we do.
And then
then I go to a run history.
We'll see that this workflow is running
here.
Then I'm going to hit
the detail of the workflow to see
how is it going, and then it will see
something,
something very important here.
So this has been completed.
They call to the IMS program
took 0.2 seconds
and this is a call from the cloud.
So it went to the
it went from from the Logic App
to the mainframe.
It did some data extraction, executed
a method
and returned a value of 777.12.
Right. Which is what
that basically the
outcome of the mainframe program
this happened with the CICS system.
I have another mprogram that does the same
it returns the same amount
and also I was able to send a message to a queue
to this MQ system
that resides in the mainframe, right?
I send it back and then I have the body.
The response of this datagram
that I sent.
And a couple of things to add is that to
the data that I sent was binary
and then it was
successfully passed by this parser.
You see the outcome here,
you see that
this is a data
and this is a data
I wanted to show you here.
Just if you just give me one second,
you see that
Trying to log on...
So cool to see the terminal.
I haven't thought about these
in a long time,
but the reminder that they're out there
and that they're they're
producing and
holding such important data.
it is.
And, and
let me let me
show you something real quick.
It's just
this just taking some time.
So I'll
I'll go to my dataset,
this one that I exported
and I'm
going to browse it right.
And then you'll see
that it has two records.
So these
two records that I had in the file
as a two records are having passed
that data, that you saw was binary data
and that binary data was basically
parsed by this host files connector,
just to finish.
So we are executing a DB2 query
this is a select from a table,
on the same mainframe
and we are executing for 3270
a navigation plan,
which is basically what we call
a sequence of screens,
a set of screens
that that have a sequence.
And for you to get to a particular class,
you have to create a navigation
that mimics
all of the sequence of these screens
using a tool
that is called a 3270 tool
or 3DT.
With this tool, you are able to create
a sequence of screens
and you have 20 screens.
And this navigation plan will tell you
that this is fantastic
for robotic process automation scenarios,
and that is going to happen.
So that's the reason why it took longer,
because you have to do
computation in the cloud
and on the mainframe.
And that's what I wanted to show you.
This is basically to summarize
some of the capabilities
that we have today
in Logic Apps
to integrate with these legacy systems.
There's so many different connectors,
there's so many ways to talk
to so many different databases
over so many different protocols.
Like you said,
it's really a onramp into an ecosystem.
And what's so important about this
and what I think
we want people to understand
is that once you get it into logic
Labs, once you get it into Azure,
then you can join the other ecosystem,
which is the Azure ecosystem
data, lakes and data,
you know, logging management analysis,
all of that work.
Once you can bring those two ecosystems
together with logic apps
and integration server as the bridge,
you can really do some cool solutions
very quickly.
Exactly. Exactly.
You're spot on, Scott,
And on the fact that
this is a result of work that was
conducted by a team for the
last 30 years,
I think is wonderful
because this is not a new
technology, right?
I mean, the work that we've done
and that we have running on this
mission, critical customers for so long
speak about it because the customers,
they are integration Very cool.
Yeah. Those core capabilities
that have been around,
that have been reliable
and been used in host integration server
now brought to logic apps.
It's peanut
butter and chocolate together.
My two favorite things.
Very cool.
Thank you so much.
Gerald Campos,
for showing me
about this, this new stuff.
All right.
I am learning all about Azure Logic apps,
bringing those cloud Native capabilities
to integrate our mainframes
and our midranges
today on Azure Friday.
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