Eagle (application server)

EAGLE is a Web based, mainframe powered application server which provides direct, secure, high performance Internet access to mainframe computer data and transactions using real time transaction processing rather than middleware or external gateways. Originally based in an IBM 3270 environment developed at the University of Florida to reduce the delivery time of student record applications, the engine was configured for the Web in 1996 and removed the need for a screen scraping interface.

EAGLE provides direct network access to mainframe data and transactions. Web applications talk directly to native mainframe resources without the complexity or expense of middleware. Non mainframe resources can be accessed via hooks to customized communication programs, using XML or EDI. Since EAGLE is itself a mainframe computer transaction, application pages are created internally and delivered via the Web. This reduces overhead compared to external call interfaces resulting in considerable performance gains; during periods of peak demand at the University of Florida, EAGLE routinely handles 400,000 transactions per day while maintaining sub second response time.

The Web is defined as a stateless environment—normally, a Web page is requested, the Web page is delivered, and the interaction is over. EAGLE associates pages with a user and handles authentication and authorization. The EAGLE session management engine is protected behind mainframe security.

EAGLE was awarded patent 6,532,463 for its state maintenance mechanism.