Low Risk, Insurance App. Development on iSeries
with Web Services

Archie Roboostoff Senior Manager, Product Management, NetManage, Inc.

Low risk, a trait dear to the insurance industry, is just one of the many proven advantages of using Web services, on iSeries machines, to develop new insurance sector applications. This innate low risk assurance, enables developers to significantly compress and expedite their development, testing and validation cycles, without fear, thereby shrinking schedules and truncating cost estimates. This, rather than being mere hype or conjecture is in reality a fundamental and demonstrable value proposition of Web services (WSs).

WSs, conceived in their current form in mid-2000 by Microsoft, IBM et al., have proven their prowess and worth, conclusively, as a genuine methodology for tangibly accelerating application development (or application extension). Hence, all of the ongoing standards activity, publicity and excitement surrounding Web services. WSs are particularly germane to the iSeries and mission-critical app. communities, since the underlying magic of this methodology is that of creatively meshing together existing software functionality to create new functionality. This is also where the low risk aspect kicks-in when it comes to insurance sector applications since the functionality that will now be re-used has already been validated, repeatedly, in production use for years, if not decades.

Insurance companies, today, are facing intense competitive, regulatory and security-related pressures to develop new applications as well as to extend the scope and reach of their existing applications. In order to capture and retain customers in today’s fast-paced, Web-centric consumer culture they have no choice but to provide more and better services – that are customizable, available online and can be activated in real-time. However, at the same time, they have to safeguard client privacy, protect sensitive data, foil fraud, maintain disaster recovery (DR), and, furthermore, continually fulfill their increasingly stringent compliance obligations [e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley].

Focus on Intrinsic Modularity and Gainful Reuse

 The insurance sector is thus in the throes of trying to develop a whole new genre of interactive, feature-rich, ultra-secure Web-centric applications – many of which are targeted to run on iSeries machines. This is where WSs are poised to play a pivotal and decisive role for iSeries customers. There are four main reasons for this:

NetManage, a premier supplier of application access solutions for IBM sector customers for over 15 years, was one of the early implementers of WSs enabling technology on iSeries systems. With an installed base that includes many large insurance companies from around the world, NetManage is now uniquely positioned with all the prerequisite experience, expertise and products to help iSeries insurance companies master and harness the power and potential of WSs-based application development.

NetManage's OnWeb: a proven basis for developing and deploying
Web services-based solutions

Web Services, on iSeries, in a Nutshell

 WSs are a standards-based, platform-neutral, and programming language-independent component technology for application development and extension. A WS per se is a remotely invoked unit of software functionality. It has to have precisely defined input/output (I/O) parameters and an agreed upon definition of the functions it will perform given a specified set of inputs. The I/O parameters of a WS are specified using XML, while its functional characteristics are defined using an XML-derivative; i.e. Web services Definition Language (WSDL).

The remote invocation of the desired software component [i.e. the WS], with the necessary inputs, is achieved using SOAP (which is no longer an acronym) – an XML-based messaging scheme that can be used across HTTP (as well as other networking protocols). The output generated by the WS, per its WSDL functional definition and the XML specification of the output ‘string’, is also conveyed back to the calling program via SOAP. Hence the key standards involved are XML, SOAP, HTTP and WSDL – with XML, the basis for both WSDL and SOAP, being the core enabling technology.

The ‘service’ offered by a WS is nothing other than just a clearly defined unit of software functionality. The actual software functionality of a WS may be delivered by any piece of software – irrespective of the language it was originally written in or the platform the software is currently running on. In addition, a WS can be invoked by a calling program, written in any language and running on any platform, as long as the calling program has access to an implementation of SOAP – and SOAP for the iSeries is available from multiple sources [e.g. IBM’s WebSphere]. This is what makes WSs so attractive vis-à-vis the iSeries and insurance software.

But there is an oft overlooked but extremely crucial ‘catch’ (or twist) when it comes to WSs. WSs rely exclusively on a run-time execution model when it comes to the software functionality reuse it offers. This means that the software performing the WSs function, e.g. calculating a credit score, needs to execute [i.e. run] that function when it is invoked, via SOAP, by the calling application. WSs is thus definitely not software reuse scheme that is based on source code cut-and-paste. Instead what you have is a requestor-provider relationship where the WSs is a function provider. NetManage has extensive experience with implementing and sustaining successful, large-scale, mission-critical run-time execution environments as required by WSs.

Think of it as Software Recycling

 WSs, with their run time execution model, breaks down all prior barriers as to software and platform interoperability. When working with WSs, it no longer matters whether prior iSeries insurance applications were written in RPG II or COBOL, while the intent today is to standardize on Java or .NET. With WSs software functionality originally developed in RPG can now be gainfully reused, with zero-risk, by a new insurance application being written in Java or C#. Thus, a new insurance application that is to run on mainframe CICS or a Java Application Server on a Unix platform, now can rely upon software functionality running on an iSeries.

Similarly, a new insurance application that is to run on an iSeries can, with consummate ease, invoke and make use of best-of-breed software functionality that is only available on other platforms [e.g. mainframes, Unix or .NET] – as long as that functionality is packaged and available as a WS. This any-to-any, cross-platform interoperability will become increasingly important to iSeries users now that IBM with the POWER5-based i5s permits OS/400, Unix [i.e. AIX 5L], Linux and even Windows to run, concurrently, on adjoining logical partitions on the same iSeries machine. The possibilities are enticing and near endless – especially given the intrinsic modularity of WSs-based applications. Thus for example, one could have a Linux-based self-service portal to front-end the customer interactions while the applications driving this portal are running on an OS/400 partition and using WSs functionality from a Windows partition.

WSs eliminates the need to repeatedly ‘reinvent the wheel’ when it comes to new application development. This is particularly critical to insurance companies with iSeries machines. There is such a treasure trove of existing and highly proven software functionality available on the iSeries, whether it be for insurance, finance, credit card processing, mail order, contact management, portal implementation, or CRM. WSs enables developers to in effect ‘cherry pick’ best-of-breed functionality from across the board – and better still even transcend platforms. WSs is thus the basis for ‘Service Oriented Architecture’ (SOA) solutions and the so called ‘Software as a Service’ (SaS) offerings.

Multiple Roles and Options for iSeries Customers

In terms of the iSeries insurance apps. and WSs, there are four separate WSs exploitation scenarios that one should distinguish and consider: 

The mechanics of creating a composite application using Web services

With the 4^th scenario, insurance companies now have the option of becoming purveyors of insurance sector software functionality for other companies – possibly even their competitors! While this may not be a viable business consideration, at present, one needs to appreciate that it is indeed an option that becomes a possibility, by default, when one adopts a WSs based software development framework.

In theory one could create iSeries WSs using source-code segments from existing insurance apps. But in reality this is rarely feasible since there is always some doubt as to source code integrity when one is dealing with apps. that were written 20 years ago. Instead, most companies and developers prefer to use application adapters or visual, screen-scraping technology to isolate and extract the necessary software functionality directly from their production level apps. – while they run in production mode. This eliminates any uncertainty as to the integrity of the functionality being captured and preserved as a WS.

Using adapters or screen-scraping to crate necessary WSs also complements the run-time execution model required by WSs since these two techniques also extract functionality from apps. that are running – rather than from source code. NetManage has both screen-scraping and adapter technology that iSeries customers can use, quickly, easily and affordably to create mission-critical WSs.

The Bottom Line

 Spurred by the need for online services and new regulatory requirements, insurance companies, around the world, are busy trying to both develop new applications as well as to enhance the functionality of existing apps. WSs, now highly proven and widely endorsed, are a guaranteed, low-risk methodology for tangibly accelerating application development and extension.

WSs provide an unprecedented, totally standards-based mechanism for software functionality reuse. Furthermore, they elegantly transcends platforms and programming languages specific issues and limitations. This is particularly significant and germane to insurance sector iSeries customers given the huge volume of highly proven insurance related software that has been developed for these machines over the last 3 decades. With WSs this mission-critical functionality can be given a whole new lease of life and be put to good use powering new applications – not just on iSeries but even on other platforms.

At the bottom line, WSs is all about the profitable recycling of software functionality. Its goal is to dramatically reduce the risk and uncertainty of application development – thereby also slashing costs and expediting schedules. WSs frowns upon the development of unproven functionality and instead encourage developers to use of previously validated functionality whenever possible. It is as such a rather safe, very sensible, low risk technology proposition guaranteed to appeal to insurance sector IT professionals.

About the author:

Archie Roboostoff has over 10 years of experience in the high tech industry.

Currently Archie is responsible for Product Management at NetManage, Inc.

Prior to joining NetManage, Archie was founder of e1525, Inc, a data management/ETL company, where he was instrumental in product management, initial development, VC funding, and sales. When e1525 was acquired by a third party, the company had over 15 enterprise customers.

Prior to e1525, he has held various development & engineering positions at EDS, Maxtor, Komag, and AvantCom Network (which was acquired by KLA Tencor).