IBM® Sterling Connect:Direct® is
point-to-point (peer-to-peer) file-based integration middleware meant
for 24x365 unattended operation, which provides assured delivery,
high-volume, and secure data exchange within and between enterprises.
It is optimized for high performance and throughput and moves files
containing any type of data (text, EDI, binary, digital content, image)
across multiple platforms, disparate file systems, and disparate media.
It is used by many industries throughout the world to move large volumes
of data and for connecting to remote offices.
Benefits
Sterling Connect:Direct offers
the following benefits:
- Predictability—Assures delivery via automated
scheduling, checkpoint restart, and automatic recovery/retry. If a
data transmission is interrupted, the transmission tries to restart
at a predefined interval for a configured amount of time. All activity
and statistics are logged so that there are verifiable audit trails
of all actions.
- Security—Ensures customer information stays
private through a proprietary protocol and offers basic security through
authentication and user proxies. Supports a comprehensive cryptographic
solution (IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Secure Plus) that
provides strong mutual authentication using X.509 certificates, SSL,
and TLS data encryption, and data integrity checking. For more information
about Sterling Connect:Direct Secure Plus and
other products that enhance Sterling Connect:Direct's
security model, see Extending the Capabilities of Sterling Connect:Direct.
- Performance—Handles the most demanding
loads, from high volumes of small files to terabyte files.
Features
Sterling Connect:Direct offers
the following features:
- Provides automation through easy-to-use Process definition and
scripting. Multi-step Processes manage data movement as well as pre-
and post-processing.
- Provides automation through scripting, scheduling, and watch directories.
- Automatically establishes connection to remote server when data
is ready for transfer. Automatic session retry re-establishes an interrupted
connection; work resumes at the point of failure.
- Offers flexible security options to control access to data, network,
or system resources. Interfaces to operating system and vendor-supplied
access control and security software.
- Supports a comprehensive cryptographic solution (Sterling Connect:Direct Secure
Plus).
- Supports local and remote administration, configuration, and Process
management through a browser user interface.
- Supports non-intrusive integration to existing applications through
the Command Line Interface (CLI), which can be used in batch files
or scripts. Also supports direct use by applications through APIs.
- Provides a complete audit trail of data movement through extensive
statistics logs.
- Supports extensive configuration options for flexibility of deployment,
management of network resources and optimization of data transfer
performance.
- Provides optional data compression that is configurable for maximum
compression or optimal use of system resources.
- Supports all major file types, media, and record formats across
multiple platforms. Data exchange is independent of content.
Platforms
Typically, Sterling Connect:Direct is
installed on a mainframe, UNIX,
or Microsoft Windows server at a central processing site
and is used to communicate with other Sterling Connect:Direct sites
in the business's network. Sterling Connect:Direct offers
multi-platform implementations tailored to each of the following operating
systems:
- z/OS®
- UNIX (Sun, HP UX, AIX®, Linux)
- Microsoft Windows
- OpenVMS
- HP NonStop (Tandem)
- VM
- VSE
- i5/OS™ (OS/400®)