BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2008--DataDirect Technologies, the unparalleled leader in data connectivity and mainframe integration and an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), today announced its immediate support for the new System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) mainframe from IBM.
With the introduction of z10 BC, midsize companies can now take advantage of the legendary reliability and security of System z while capitalizing on the energy efficiency, unsurpassed speed and cost management features first introduced by the System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) mainframe. DataDirect Technologies' unique exploitation of the specialty processors available on z10 EC and now z10 BC reinforces IBM's strategic efforts to extend the value of the mainframe to new workloads, attract new users and reduce operating costs.
The DataDirect® Shadow® product is the first and only mainframe integration middleware capable of diverting process intensive Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) workloads, event publishing and data workloads from the mainframe general purpose processor to the non-restricted, more economic, System z10 Integrated Information Processor (zIIP). As a result, organizations can run new and expanded workloads on the mainframe while improving performance and lowering mainframe Total-Cost-of-Ownership (TCO). SOA continues to be a major driver for mainframe integration. Web services and SOA initiatives involving mainframe systems are the fastest growing segments in terms of revenue and new customer acquisition at DataDirect Technologies, increasing approximately 50 percent year over year.
"Having the System z community of business partners like DataDirect Technologies provide immediate support for z10 BC clearly demonstrates that mainframe momentum remains strong," said Karl Freund, vice president of marketing for System z at IBM. "When you add up all the industry solutions and software stacks available from IBM and niche providers like DataDirect Technologies, the mainframe truly rises as a smart, cool and affordable solution for application deployments and server consolidation."
To date, more than 5,000 unique applications are available on the System z platform. IBM reports more than 1,400 worldwide independent software vendors (ISVs) that are developing applications for System z.
"IBM's new z10 business class mainframe has strategic importance for organizations trying to reduce spending and increase IT efficiency," said Gregg Willhoit, chief software architect for DataDirect Technologies. "When these new advanced mainframes are combined with next-generation middleware like DataDirect Shadow, customers have the unique ability to improve performance and dramatically reduce mainframe TCO, particularly in SOA related projects."
About DataDirect Technologies
DataDirect Technologies is the software industry's only comprehensive provider of software for connecting the world's most critical business applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards. Developers worldwide depend on DataDirect® products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC and ADO.NET, XQuery and SOAP. More than 300 leading independent software vendors and thousands of enterprises rely on DataDirect Technologies to simplify and streamline data connectivity for distributed systems and to reduce the complexity of mainframe integration. DataDirect Technologies is an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS). For more information, visit www.datadirect.com.
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