NTI and Infrasoft: Making the Partner Ecosystem work

NTI and Infrasoft: Making the Partner Ecosystem work.
Modern accessibility with uLinga Gateway

For a business built on protocols and services, whether networking or simply around data, Infrasoft continues to deliver innovative solutions for the Nonstop Compute community. Focused on addressing some of the more complex issues facing Nonstop customers, Infrasoft has consistently delivered premier solutions that are well-architected with industry-leading levels of support:

“Infrasoft specializes in High Availability Software Infrastructure Solutions
for the Enterprise. We approach all potential solutions with innovation, security,
and modern design while ensuring that we preserve customers’ existing
investments and skills across enterprise platforms.”

With roots deeply anchored in networking where Infrasoft’s uLinga solutions provided a variety of networking product offerings aimed at modernizing network connectivity, including ensuring legacy SNA could be replaced with modern TCP/IP while protecting the applications from change. SNA APIs remained but a more modern networking infrastructure could be deployed. Nonstop customers began viewing uLinga not just as a replacement to SNAX but a follow-on, updated and extended replacement for ICE.

Given this level of experience together with the level of expertise demonstrated over time, Infrasoft’s pursuit of modernization has taken it beyond simply modernizing connectivity to where today it delivers solutions that modernize the interactions of applications across Hybrid IT configurations. Popular among all enterprises, bringing together a diverse population of servers from mainframes to servers, to intelligent networking and database products, to cloud service offerings has meant that Nonstop Compute has had to reconsider the value proposition that came with keeping Nonstop isolated. The necessity to connect and deliver transactional data elsewhere has never been greater and for Nonstop customers, this is why they are turning to Nonstop vendors such as Infrasoft.

“Approaching all potential solutions with innovation and modern design, with comprehensive security features built-in, while ensuring that we preserve
customers’ existing investments and skills across enterprise platforms,
including HPE Nonstop Compute and Linux servers.

“Now with powerful Data Transformation capabilities.”

The latest product offering, uLinga Gateway, is developing traction in the Nonstop marketplace. Following partnerships with high-profile vendors, including NTI, uLinga Gateway is a collection of versatile properties that readily bridge the old with the new, transparently. Integrating legacy with modern systems has always presented challenges to any IT organization but for the Nonstop customer, this was particularly challenging as there was little appetite to dig deep into an application and undertake changes as the expertise to do so wasn’t readily accessible in the IT marketplace.

Together with NTI, the first real-world deployment of uLinga Gateway – in this case, DRNet®/Gateway, powered by uLinga – is now in production. What appeared to be a common problem for Nonstop customers relying on one payment processing solution, resulted in a Southern Hemisphere financial institution using uLinga Gateway to provide TLS protection of TCP/IP connections to Visa, without any need to change the application. A clear win for the Nonstop customer looking for transparence while stepping up to today’s modern mandatory networking properties.

“This may be a simple use case scenario,” said Andrew Price, Infrasoft Director, Business Operations. “However, it is just the beginning as we respond to Nonstop customer inquiries about other technical issues that have arisen. We might be viewed as a niche provider but from what we are seeing, the opportunities for uLinga Gateway look plentiful. Having NTI complete the sale confirms our confidence in working within partner ecosystems.”

Modernizing legacy systems without rewriting code or disrupting existing operations happens to be one use case being pursued. Nonstop customers face few alternatives when considering integration of long-standing solutions running on Nonstop with processing on adjacent servers. This is particularly important when data created on Nonstop is recognized as being an important source of current information valuable to the model populating required of AI.

Such offerings as transitioning to modern TCP/IP (as referenced already), protocol conversion as has been identified when faced with connecting Nonstop applications with devices that only support protocols different to what Nonstop applications support and where changing the application is not an option. Risks are mitigated with DRNet®/Gateway, powered by uLinga, as the underling architecture inherent to uLinga is a proven product as it is shared across all uLinga product offerings, including the earliest uLinga offerings modernizing SNA networks. As such it brings across built-in diagnostic and logging tools that provide faster issue resolution, better system visibility to deliver a solution that doesn’t demand specialist skills from existing Nonstop customer support staff. Best of all? It has been widely deployed, globally, where it has attained a record of reliability highly appreciated by all Nonstop customers.

Perhaps the most important aspect of DRNet®/Gateway, powered by uLinga, is how it is going about future-proofing additional integration projects. Change is unavoidable and new technologies are appearing with routine regularity. Inherent, too, within Infrasoft’s uLinga Gateway are the means whereby new and emerging standards can be readily accommodated ensuring all Nonstop customers will not be left without options. This is being recognized as the most important aspect of uLinga Gateway and opens the door to use case scenarios as broadly based as can be imagined and the reason it has become a welcome addition to the NTI DRNet® product portfolio.

Today Infrasoft’s uLinga for Gateway supports TCP/IP, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, TLS, as well as Pathsend and Guardian IPC on HPE NonStop.  Messages can be transformed to/from binary fixed-format, JSON and ISO8583, and more. It can also seamlessly integrate with any modern API Gateway offering, including the Nonstop API Gateway. Whereas most API Gateways are HTTP centric, typically they don’t provide native support for such key Nonstop interfaces as the Guardian IPC or Pathsend. Considering that most current Nonstop applications rely on access to these interfaces, uLinga Gateway brings a degree of immediacy to any projects needing to modernize these applications and to do so in a way that makes the task simpler and easy to complete.

Look for Infrasoft and NTI too at upcoming events as they will be only too happy to discuss with you what DRNet®/Gateway, powered by uLinga, can deliver.  Should this be an area where similar projects are under consideration, then please reach out to the NTI and Infrasoft team. Check the websites of NTI and Infrasoft where you will find their contact information –

https://network-tech.com/contact-us

https://www.infrasoft.com.au/wp/wordpress/#contactus