The Software Solution for Seamless Access to Mainframe Data from Windows PCs.
“Market Insights provides an Internet-based Data Warehouse system to the Healthcare Industry. New data is continuously loaded into our terabyte-class data warehouse. We process hundreds of 3480 cartridges at a time, representing tens of millions of records.
Without the efficiency of the StorageTek tape handling and the data migration and processing automation of Mainframe Data Engine from Flatiron Solutions, I don’t know how we would do it.”
Anthony Milano, Founder and Director
Market Insights
[Read more about our work for Market Insights]
[Flatiron Solutions Mainframe Data Conversion Services]
ETL – Extraction, Transformation and Loading
ETL metadata support includes direct creation of output files and population of databases, field and record selection, filtering, character set conversion, numeric field conversion, and year-2000 date correction. Definition of source record structures is completely interactive and is similar to creating a new table in Microsoft Access. Field names, types, and sizes are entered to describe a record. Create or add to text files, Microsoft Access databases and other database targets.
Year 2000 Data Remediation
Data from some mainframe systems may contain date fields that are not year-2000 compliant and even some newly originated data may come from systems that have not been made compliant. Mainframe Data Engine provides a simple means to address the handling of date fields on a case-by-case basis. Different rules may be used for separate fields even within the context of the same record structure.
Operating System Support
Mainframe Data Engine runs under current and recent versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. Legacy versions of Mainframe Data Engine run under Windows XP.
Data Migration and Media Conversion
Legacy versions of Mainframe Data Engine support 9-track tapes, 3480, 3490, and 3490E cartridges, 4mm cartridges, 8mm cartridges, QIC (1/4″ cartridges), DLT, and automated cartridge tape libraries. Data transfer support includes both reading from and writing to IBM, ICL*, ANSI, and unlabeled tapes.
* In addition to the more common ANSI and IBM tape volume formats, Mainframe Data Engine also provides support for reading and writing ICL labeled tapes and ICL variable block data files. This capability is important in Europe and other parts of the world.
Direct Support for SCSI Tape Subsystems
Legacy versions of Mainframe Data Engine support a wide variety of tape subsystem hardware including QIC, 4mm, 8mm, 9-track, 18-track and 36-track (3480 / 3490 / 3490E), DLT (Digital Linear Tape), and MagStar. Hardware manufacturers include Exabyte, HP, IBM, M4 Data, Qualstar, Quantum, and Storage Technology. Flatiron Solutions has worked closely with certain hardware manufacturers, including M4 Data* and Storage Technology**, to develop specialized support for certain subsystems. For example;
* Mainframe Data Engine supports the M4 Data 9906, 9914, M490E and M490L subsystems. We worked directly with M4 Data UK engineering staff to integrate the capability of the M490E/L to write 18-track cartridges, as well as the library capabilities of the M490L, into Mainframe Data Engine.
** Mainframe Data Engine supports the StorageTek 4220, 4280, 9490, and SD-3 subsystems. We worked directly with StorageTek engineering staff to integrate the capability of the 42xx ACL (automated cartridge loader) to position to specific cells in its magazine. We have incorporated this support, which enables the 42xx with ACL to function as a small library, into Mainframe Data Engine.
Tape and Cartridge Volume Duplication
Legacy versions of Mainframe Data Engine can archive the entire contents of tapes and cartridges, including label data, with support for automated tape libraries. These archives may be zipped for space conservation. Tapes or cartridges may also be regenerated from these archives.