Will the growth of Web Services cause HostBridge to be a non-factor?
Absolutely not –HostBridge is actually the key piece that allows an existing CICS BMS transaction to be invoked AS a web service! The bottom line is that the use of HostBridge, XML, Java and web services are complementary, not competitive! HostBridge will XML-enable you existing CICS BMS transactions and allow them to be invoked (perhaps by a Java program) as a web service. Each component and technology plays a vital part in creating an infrastructure that encompasses your past, present and future IT investments. We currently have customers doing this exact thing with HostBridge. They have build Java business level objects. These provide high level business functions such as ‘Get Account Status’. Behind this functional interface, the Java application may use JDBC to retrieve it from a database or use HostBridge to retrieve it from a CICS application. Since Java supports XML and HTTP very well, this makes it an ideal tool for working with HostBridge.
