Energizer for IMS Connect

Key Benefits

Increases availability—enables dynamic changes to the IMS Connect environment
Improves manageability—uses a Web-based interface to create and manage exits
Extends security—adds levels of security checking
Enhances reliability—balances workloads to improve availability and performance
Prevents messages from overloading the system
Provides statistics and diagnostics to help you tune for best performance
Simplifies the use of IMS Connect to Web-enable legacy IMS data

Business Challenges

Organizations are looking at ways to use existing resources to expand into eBusiness. Rather than move legacy data from a datastore—such as IMS—to a distributed platform, organizations are exploring ways to add Web front-ends to existing data. However, opening datastores to the Web can be costly and error-prone. Poor response time, poor performance, and system outages cost organizations time, money, and customers.

Today, system administrators are using the IBM IMS Connect product to Web-enable their datastores. Because many companies have limited in-house resources, coding the required functions, configuring the best parameters, monitoring for potential problems, tracking system changes, and managing e-transactions are difficult and labor-intensive tasks.

BMC Software Solution

Energizer for IMS Connect enhances the functionality of IMS Connect by allowing you to tailor how it operates in your environment. Energizer for IMS Connect expands the functionality of IMS Connect by

eliminating the need to code assembly language exits
balancing workloads
enabling dynamic changes, which reduce the number of times IMS Connect must be recycled
preventing outages caused by runaway transactions overloading datastores

Exit Services

Exit Services, a component of Energizer for IMS Connect, addresses these problems: the lack of in-house assembler language skills (which are required for writing and maintaining user message exits) and the inability of IMS Connect to dynamically refresh user message exits.

When a message is destined to or from a client, IMS Connect invokes a user message exit to process the message.

With Exit Services, you can create and maintain “virtual exits,” which require no coding at all; you can use assembler-written exits; and enable advanced features—such as reloading processing options and exits without recycling IMS Connect.

Security

Protect your datastore while improving datastore response time by transferring security to IMS Connect. Transferring security ensures that the client making the request is authorized to access IMS Connect and the requested transaction.

Workload Balancing

Balancing the workload across multiple datastores in a sysplex or a user-defined group of datastores improves response time and ensures that datastores are not overloaded. The DataStore Router, a component of Energizer for IMS Connect, directs transactions to the datastore that is best capable of processing the request by using the following criteria:

workload balancing
affinity
resource availability

Workload balancing protects datastore availability by routing transactions based on the following methods:

OS/390 Workload Manager (WLM) Sysplex Routing Services
statistical balancing

An affinity directs a request to a subset of the datastore group.

Energizer for IMS Connect simplifies application coding and maintenance. The datastore that the transaction runs on is transparent to the application.

WorkLoad Governor

Overloading a system with messages or runaway transactions is a common occurrence with Web-enabled systems and can cause costly outages. The WorkLoad Governor prevents this outage by allowing you to specify the volume and the rate IMS Connect receives messages. If your criteria are exceeded, messages are rejected and outages are prevented.

Statistics and Diagnostics

Fine-tune performance and troubleshoot problems by using the statistical and diagnostical features. Display transaction, exit, and datastore parameters in graphical or table format, and export the results to a tab or comma-delimited file.

Web-Based Interface

With the Energizer for IMS Connect Web-based interface, you can use a mouse to complete your tasks. You can create and edit user message exits, select parameters to chart (line, bar, or pie), display diagnostic reports, or graphically display which datastores are connected to which instances of IMS Connect. You can also display which instances of IMS Connect are connected to which eGroups.

Improved Availability

With Energizer for IMS Connect, you can dynamically control your IMS Connect environment without recycling IMS Connect. The console allows you to create, update, and view processing options and configuration members.

Helping You Maintain an Advantage

BMC Software Professional Services helps your company maintain its competitive advantage through a comprehensive suite of services that includes service level management consulting, installation, implementation, configuration, and customization. Our professional services and education all ensure the ongoing availability of critical business applications, maximize product potential, reduce project risk, deliver IT value to your business, and improve your operations. For more information about BMC Software Professional Services, visit http://www.bmc.com/profserv.

About BMC Software

BMC Software, Inc. [NYSE: BMC], is the leading provider of enterprise management solutions. Through its Assuring Business Availability® approach, BMC Software delivers control over infrastructure management costs, control of market advantage and differentiation via service management, and growth of business value with solutions for business optimization. BMC Software is a member of the S&P 500, with fiscal year 2002 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion and offices worldwide. Visit http://www.bmc.com to learn more.