In a new article, Fady Moussallam & Mark Little describe how the open source JBossESB has been used to integrate legacy COBOL CICS applications without necessarily having to rely on XML and Web Services stacks. The authors start by describing the problems of first generation, mainframe-centric, integration, before they outline what they perceive as the strengths of adopting an ESB approach for the purpose of mainframe integration.
After an architectural discussion of what they term "ESB-centric mainframe integration", they offer a step-by-step guide on how to implement this architecture using JBossESB and LegStar, an open source mainframe integration solution. This enables programs implemented in COBOL, running on the mainframe's z/OS, to communicate with ESB-hosted Java components through WebSphere MQ.
Check out the article for more information.
