Interfacing Legacy Applications with RDBMSs and Middleware

Today programmers have a wide range of options when developing applications. There is an endless number of tools and techniques associated with simply writing a program. Hardware advances deliver what used to be the power of a mainframe on a programmer&s;s desktop. Given the pace of software and hardware advances, it should follow that programmer productivity has grown equally as fast. This is not the case, because for many new applications being developed, there is one constraint — it must plug into an established world of corporate data and the processes that manage them. For many companies, the processes that manage their enterprise data were written 10 to 15 years ago. These applications are also referred to as legacy systems. Rewriting legacy systems would solve the technology gap experienced today, but the cost and risks are usually too great. This chapter outlines some options available for interfacing legacy systems with the latest technology, enabling a company to continue to compete in a rapidly changing field.