JavaWorld Forums: Case study: Sabre's Web services journey

I was a little confused regarding this statement in the article - "That's because Web services provide a level of automation that isn't possible with mainframe-based services, which require more human involvement. For instance, travel agents can use Sabre Web services to conduct calendar-based airfare searches. In the past, those types of requests would have been sent to a customer service agent."

Why would a mainframe require manual intervention when another platform would not? Services in an SOA ought to be available regardless of the platforms they are hosted on. Core z systems such as CICS and IMS support Web services and systems like WebSphere Application Server for z/OS deliver an advanced Web services software stack on the mainframe.

Deploying services on the mainframe is an advantage and not a liablity. Services are designed to be shared enterprise wide and the mainframe delivers a service deployment platform where advanced availability, recoverability, security and scalability is the norm.

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