In the late 1990s, much of my work was focused on the so-called emerging "Web-to-host" market, in which mainframe UIs were either converted to HTML code, or surfaced as Java applets (still maintaining the "green screen" look), and made accessible to Web clients.
One company that took this paradigm to the edge of what we now know as service oriented architecture was Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, which needed ways to manage customer data spread across an array of mainframes. The solution, implemented arouind 1999 or so, was the creation of a Web-based interface layer that provided a common front-end to these mainframe queries. It was a classic case of substantial cost savings made possible by helping customer representatives avoid eight different lookups on eight different systems to change one customer listing.
It appears MassMutual is staying ahead of the curve when it comes to SOA. John Webster, writing in Computerworld, documented how the company now maintains a service oriented architecture with about 40 services, including distribution management, premium collections, customer information management, new business and underwriting.
Reuse is a big driver of the SOA effort. As Kinam-Peter Kim, manager of enterprise SOA at MassMutual, put it in the article: "These services integrate applications across business units, each of which markets different products. Instead of replacing an existing application wholesale, business units select an appropriate combination from the company's array of shared services."
One company that took this paradigm to the edge of what we now know as service oriented architecture was Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, which needed ways to manage customer data spread across an array of mainframes. The solution, implemented arouind 1999 or so, was the creation of a Web-based interface layer that provided a common front-end to these mainframe queries. It was a classic case of substantial cost savings made possible by helping customer representatives avoid eight different lookups on eight different systems to change one customer listing.
It appears MassMutual is staying ahead of the curve when it comes to SOA. John Webster, writing in Computerworld, documented how the company now maintains a service oriented architecture with about 40 services, including distribution management, premium collections, customer information management, new business and underwriting.
Reuse is a big driver of the SOA effort. As Kinam-Peter Kim, manager of enterprise SOA at MassMutual, put it in the article: "These services integrate applications across business units, each of which markets different products. Instead of replacing an existing application wholesale, business units select an appropriate combination from the company's array of shared services."
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