Looking to tackle the problem of data integration in scenarios involving mainframes, Neon Systems on Monday is shipping what it calls the industry"s first ESB (enterprise service bus) for big-iron boxes.

The company"s Shadow Real-Time Enterprise (RTE) features a technical architecture and development environment to integrate mainframe-based data with PC-based applications such as CRM systems. Shadow RTE is based on Neon"s Shadow code base and technology assets acquired in 2004 from Clientsoft and InnerAccess Technologies.

The company is positioning the product as an alternative to point-to-point integration. Shadow RTE supports Web services.

"It pulls the information off [the mainframe] without having to actually go into the mainframe yourself with a programmer," said company representative Steve Capoccia.

Shadow RTE enables extraction of information from a mainframe and makes it available via XML-based services, said Shawn Willett, principal analyst at Current Analysis.

"I think this product is good because it has so many options for getting things out of the mainframe," Willett said. Technologies such as CICS can be used to access data and then turn it into a Web service, he added.

Neon Systems, however, may face obstacles in persuading users to deploy its mainframe ESB.

"The biggest obstacle is people are pretty nervous about exposing things on the mainframe as a Web service that anybody can access," Willett said. And if too many people access a service, it could have a negative impact on performance.

Shadow RTE deployed on IBM z/Series mainframes starts at US$35,000 for a user site with 250 to 500 employees. WebMethods will resell Shadow RTE as its mainframe integration solution, according to Neon Systems.