Oracle Readies New Edition of Tuxedo Application Server

Oracle is introducing the first major new release of the Tuxedo application server since it acquired the technology with the buyout in BEA Systems in 2008.

Tuxedo 11G, redeveloped as part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11G, serves as an SOA-ready system that supports the development and deployment of C/C++, COBOL, Ruby and Python development languages. The new version has the capacity to support the deployment of tens of thousands of application domains in an application grid architecture, according to Oracle officials.

Tuxedo has long supported C/C++ and COBOL, but the new release adds support for Ruby and Python development, which are essential development languages for Web and cloud computing applications. The new Tuxedo edition, which is the first upgrade since BEA Systems released Version 9.1 in 2007, has been numbered to conform to the current generation of the Oracle Database 11g and multiple other components in the Oracle software product line.

Oracle also announced a related product, the Oracle Tuxedo Application Runtime for CICS and Batch11G and Oracle Tuxedo Application Re-hosting Workbench 11g, which together allow the re-hosting of mainframe applications to a grid architecture of massive numbers of microcomputer processors.

With these applications Oracle is taking aim at the massive installed base of IBM mainframe applications that run on the CICS mainframe transaction server and IBM's flagship DB2 relational database, which has been the archrival of the Oracle database in enterprises virtually since Oracle was founded in 1977.  

With these new Tuxedo tools, developers can either create new applications or migrate legacy C/C++ or COBOL mainframe applications that are still business-critical to cloud server platforms. The tools automate the re-hosting process and reduce the time, cost and risk of moving mainframe applications to open cloud systems, with the potential of increasing return on investment, according to Oracle officials.

The new Tuxedo Application Re-hosting and Runtime solution, along with increased SOA (service-oriented architecture) application development and the new language support, "provides customers with an industrial-strength alternative to mainframes," said Frank Xiong, Oracle's vice president of software development.

The re-hosting package includes a number of tools to help data center managers transfer existing IBM mainframe data and applications to Oracle database environments.

Oracle Tuxedo Application Runtime for CICS and Batch11G provides a CICS API emulation batch environment that allows mainframe applications to run unchanged on Tuxedo 11G in a multinode grid environment with centralized production control. The CICS application runtime can support more than 100,000 users and 50,000 transactions per second.

With the Batch Application Runtime, IT managers can run mainframe-like batch processing jobs that allow for local or remote job submissions.

The re-hosting package also includes a DB2 Migrator to automate the process of converting DB2 scheme and data for Oracle Database 11g. A COBOL Migrator allows IT technicians to transfer IBM mainframe COBOL application code, including OLTP and batch tasks, to open server systems.

I File Migrator enables the conversion of mainframe datasets and flat files to ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) files or to the Oracle Database 11g.

A JCL (Job Control Language) Migrator allows the transfer of IBM JCL jobs to the Tuxedo environments while maintaining the characteristics of existing batch jobs.

The migration package even includes a 3270 Terminal Server to provide 3270 terminal emulation for mainframe applications that require it.