eCube Systems DevOps
Maximizing Agility with a HIP for the Future

Organizations striving to future-proof their IT solutions are increasingly adopting Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIP). However, when it comes to DevOps, most vendors provide this intelligence with proprietary scripts that perform repetitive and time-intensive tasks. The problem with this approach is that it assumes a static homogenous environment and it requires scripting changes when the environment changes. The focus is strictly on deployment functions and largely ignores some operational challenges.

That’s where eCube Systems can help companies maximize agility with our Hybrid Infrastructure Platforms: NXTware Integration engine, NXTmonitor APM, NXTera middleware, and NXTsecure CSO toolkit.

Abstracting the Complex Infrastructure with Simple-to-Use GUI

“Our toolset enables the best HIP practices for Fortune 500 clients, providing a platform for DevOps, security, and application performance improvements with increased longevity,” says Kevin Barnes, president of eCube.

With NXTmonitor, eCube combines its award-winning application performance manager (APM) with a HIP that enables the management of cloud-based applications and on-premise applications in one system. The most distinguishing feature of NXTmonitor is that it captures the developer’s knowledge of the application and exports that in a configuration to production. It records all application dependencies, and proactively resolves issues before the end user sees it.
HIP and APM significantly increase productivity for DevOps engineers. Using dependency mapping minimizes scripting solutions, and a GUI with one-click administrative controls empowers DevOps engineers to respond to issues and control the application’s overall health.

NXTmonitor provides a feature called application orchestration, which enables components to start up orderly with a number of operator controls designed for this purpose. This feature provides automation in application start-up, shutdown, application health and problem resolution.

Creating a Distributed and Integrated Agile Environment

Complementing NXTmonitor is eCube Systems’ ALM solution, NXTware Remote. This development system leverages the highly adaptive Eclipse platform along with plug-ins to create a distributed and integrated agile environment for mainframe developers. This allows them to replace the mainframe green screen with a modern desktop IDE and distributed services to the mainframe.

In leveraging the Eclipse platform for 3GL development for Fortran, COBOL, BASIC, C, and Pascal, eCube uses plug-in technology for intelligent editors, remote file browsing, source repository access, and remote compilation. NXTware Remote provides the ability to work remotely from a desktop seamlessly without any mainframe infrastructure knowledge.

eCube tools support mainframes such as OpenVMS, IBM, and NonStop, along with Unix, Linux, and Windows—addressing the reliability, adaptability, and customization requirements of large organizations.

eCube’s clients include many prestigious companies, including IBM, Honeywell, IKEA, Shell, UHC, Ericsson, Pepsi, Chrysler, BONY, Lockheed, the US Army, and many others. For instance, it worked with a credit card company that used OpenVMS and struggled to attract new COBOL developers for their mainframe applications. By adopting NXTware Remote and a modern interface, a new development environment was implemented and customized per the credit card company’s requirements, allowing them to on-board new developers and extend the life of their COBOL applications.

The key to sustainability and longevity is ARM

One of eCube’s main differentiating factors is the ARM evaluation process it employs to provide solutions to clients. This process consists of three stages: assessment, remediation, and modernization. During the assessment phase, the team examines various factors related to a client's problem, including software proficiency, personnel skill sets, and forward-looking documentation to identify their current and future needs.

Our toolset enables the best HIP practices for Fortune 500 clients, providing DevOps, security, and application performance improvements with increased longevity

Then, eCube analyses the application and related components for potential issues and delivers an assessment report. At that point, the client decides how to proceed with remediation to address these problems and achieve desired goals. Once these issues are resolved, the team moves on to the modernization phase to upgrade the system.

While resolving client problems, eCube identifies better solutions that add more capabilities to its existing portfolio of solutions. For instance, in order to make NXTmonitor more cloudfriendly, eCube designed a web services version of NXTmonitor that is browser based..

eCube was established by former Open Environment Corporation and Borland Software Corporation employees. They recognized the need for an innovative company to help organizations maximize the return on their technology investments and facilitate the modernization of legacy systems onto cutting-edge platforms. eCube continuously strives to identify improved solutions that add more capabilities to its portfolio. Its commitment to delivering customized and scalable solutions for each client has earned it a reputation as one of the industry leaders.