- Environments Supported Transparently—CAICCI supports a wide range of communications protocols and network configurations. This enables systems supported by CAICCI to communicate with each other without any special hardware or software.
With CAICCI, software is insulated from the specifics of the environment because it communicates with CAICCI through a platform‑neutral API. CAICCI then communicates the information to the targeted platform, handling the specific communications requirements transparently.
The architecture of CAICCI enables it to be extended to support additional platforms and communications protocols without affecting the software solutions.
- Peer-to-Peer Communication—Peer‑to‑peer communication provides services at each end of a communications link that work as equal partners in managing the communication.
- Transmission Management—CAICCI completely manages the physical communications between platforms. Applications operate without regard to the details of the underlying communications protocol. CAICCI is multitasking so that applications can use its services concurrently, regardless of any limitations in the underlying network.
In complex networks, the path between applications can include intermediate platforms using different communications protocols. CAICCI automatically selects the optimum path from the source to the target, translating protocols as required.
- Optional Queuing of Received Data—Requests may be sent to an application that is busy or is unavailable. CAICCI queues the data until the application is prepared to receive it, either in memory or using a "store and forward" file. It enables messages to be sent to applications even when they are shut down or during network outages, providing a high degree of recoverability and availability.
- Performance Optimization—CAICCI optimizes data traffic based on response criteria and system load. It performs load balancing across multiple links and handles data compression. It can be dynamically reconfigured to accommodate changing workloads.
- Simplified Installation—Because CAICCI handles messaging for many products, installation involves the definition of only one facility for each computer. This provides a single point of control, a single set of network definitions, and a single facility to monitor and tune. New applications, links, and protocols can be added dynamically.
- Built‑in Diagnostic Aids—Communications trace facilities are provided to simplify problem determination and resolution. These facilities enable your CA products to be quickly and consistently supported in the event of any communications problem.
- Optional Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Support—SSL support is provided under TCP/IP. Data is encrypted and sent or received across the network providing the maximum level of security.
- CAICCI Generic Resources—The feature can group CAICCI applications on different systems into a single logical entity referred to as a CAICCI generic resource. Applications can then communicate using generic names that are mapped to available instances of the specified server application.
CAICCI generic resources provide scalability, manageability, and fault tolerance. You can add or reconfigure application servers—or to continue processing across network outages—without impacting or reconfiguring client systems.
- CAICCI SPAWN—The facility provides transaction management for CAICCI applications. CAICCI applications can use it to trigger and manage units of work as transactions on the mainframe or on other distributed systems. On the mainframe, spawned units of work can exist as subtasks on a server, as CICS transactions, or as stand‑alone address spaces.
- Assured Delivery—The feature lets you verify whether an intended recipient actually received the message from the sender.
