Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH (GDIS) – the IT full-service provider of the Generali Group – puts great value on the
efficient and controlled use of master data and control data in all business processes. For decades, GDIS has relied on the mainframe. For more than 25 years TABEX4, the table management system from BOI Software GmbH, has provided revision-proof, high- performance productive master data and control data.
In order to make this data also available for Java applications in the decentralized world, a uniform and company-wide table infrastructure for Java was implemented with TABEX4 JTC – a highly efficient connection between mainframe and decentralized Java applications.
In GDIS application programming, the productive control data and master data are now available both on the mainframe and in Java for the world‘s fastest read access: Access speed with TABEX4 JTC is up to 550 times faster compared to access on RDBs. This allows GDIS to implement its business applications either on the mainframe or via Java in the decentralized world and modernize them step by step as required. Complete control of all business-critical data and processes is always maintained.
GDIS is the IT full-service provider of Generali Germany, the second largest primary insurance group on the German market.
Since May 1992, GDIS – formerly Aachener und Münchener Informatik Service AG – has been using TABEX4, the leading system for the management of master data and control data. TABEX4 is used on the mainframe in z/OS and enables 150 users from different departments to maintain master data and control data in a revision-proof manner. With TABEX4 guidance and support, data is provided across all test stages until production.
GDIS has more than 5,000 tables with master data and control data in productive use and several billion TABEX4 accesses per day. The high TABEX4 access speed and the subsequent reduced CPU-demand save time and money in daily use.
GDIS relies on the mainframe for its IT development strategy. The connection to the decentralized Java world plays an increasingly important role. New applications are implemented either on the mainframe in COBOL or decentral in Java, but both must access identical productive data. For decentralized Java applications this access has so far only been realized with high costs via IMS transactions on the mainframe.
Therefore, GDIS was looking for an innovative solution to provide productive data in a simple, secure and automatic way for fast decentralized Java access. The central administration of all businesscritical master data and control data with TABEX4 was to be maintained. Likewise, the revision-proof maintenance of the master data and control data hosted on the mainframe by the 150 skilled employees of the Generali Group via the TABEX4 web interface was expected to remain unchanged.
An important success factor for GDIS is a middleware to centrally provide fast access to master data and control data. The use of exactly the same data and procedures for the mainframe (IMS/COBOL) and
ecentralized (Java) application programs is essential. Also, control of central data and access in all runtime environments is vital. Another important point for future developments is the continuation and connection of the mainframe concept to the decentralized world in Java.
In close cooperation, the TABEX4 Java Table Cache (TABEX4 JTC) was adapted specifically to the requirements of GDIS. GDIS now uses TABEX4 JTC as a separate middleware in Linux with a single data source, the Common Data Space on z/OS. (Shown in the figure on page 5 „Bridging the gap between Mainframe and Java“.)
With the implementation of TABEX4 JTC, GDIS now provides the productive master data and control data for the world’s fastest Java table access. The productive introduction of TABEX4 JTC fulfilled all requirements of GDIS.
With the successful implementation of TABEX4 JTC at GDIS, all project goals were achieved:
An important success factor for GDIS is a middleware to centrally provide fast access to master data and control data.
