mainframethrough

Mainframethrough is an architectural concept in information technology that seeks to provide controlled access to mainframe systems and their legacy applications through modern interfaces and middleware. The approach preserves core business logic and data on mainframes while enabling contemporary applications, web portals, and mobile apps to interact with those resources via APIs, microservices, and cloud-native deployment models.

Origin and scope: The term has emerged in discussions of enterprise modernization as organizations aim to bridge on-premises mainframes with modern development practices. It covers real-time transactional access as well as batch-processing integration and data sharing with external systems.

Core components and patterns: Implementation typically relies on adapters or connectors that translate between mainframe environments (such as z/OS, CICS, IMS, 3270 interfaces) and modern protocols (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, AMQP). It often employs API gateways or service meshes, an enterprise service bus, or message queues, along with middleware like z/OS Connect, IBM MQ, or similar integration platforms. Data mapping, transformation, and security controls are critical, as is change management to minimize impact on existing workloads.

Applications and benefits: Mainframethrough supports gradual modernization by exposing legacy services to new applications, enabling web and mobile front ends, analytics access, and event-driven processing. It can reduce the risk and cost of full replacement while accelerating development cycles.

Challenges: Potential latency, complexity of governance, security, compliance, and reliance on middleware. Monitoring and testing must ensure reliability of mainframe services from external consumers.

See also: mainframe modernization, z/OS Connect, API management.