Oracle on Wednesday unveiled Tuxedo 11g with two new options added to the transaction processing monitor that's been upgraded to an application server for non-Java applications.

Tuxedo 11g, when equipped with the new Application Runtime 11g for CICS and Batch option, can take mainframe applications unchanged and run them on the any of hardware on which Tuxedo itself runs. That includes basic Intel x86 servers running Linux, as well as servers that run HPUX, IBM's AIX and IBM's OS/400, and Sun's Solaris.

The existing mainframe applications may have been written in Cobol, C, or C++ and rely on the mainframe's CICS transaction processing monitor. The Tuxedo alternative recognizes CICS calls --IBM's venerable Customer Information and Control System -- and knows how to translate them into the Tuxedo distributed environment, said Ajay Patel, VP of Oracle Fusion Middleware, in an interview.

The company also launched Oracle Application Re-Hosting Workbench 11g, to automate the migration of mainframe applications to the Tuxedo environment. The workbench helps "reduce the time, cost and risk of migration projects," Oracle said.

"We see this as a big opportunity to net new customers. There's never before been a credible vendor like Oracle offering to migrate the application side away from the mainframe as well as the data side of the house," said Patel.

Patel said Oracle's mainframe customers are concerned about application migration in part because of the dwindling availability of mainframe skill sets. Few university computer science departments turn out Cobol programmers, and the application writers that created the mainframe applications are long retired.

Tuxedo can sustain 100,000 CICS transactions per second originated by 50,000 concurrent users on a server cluster, said Patel. That kind of capability means Tuxedo is capable of hosting all but the highest speed, highest volume transaction customers on the mainframe, such as those using TPF or Transaction Processing Facility.

Patel said Oracle launched Tuxedo 10g in January of 2009 and most of the 2,400 Tuxedo customers are currently using this version of the product. The mainframe migration options work with 11g and provide additional incentive for Tuxedo users to upgrade to the next version of the product.

In addition to being able to run CICS applications, Tuxedo can host applications relying on IBM JES (Job Entry System), which triggers local or remote job submissions, and batch processing. Both products are priced separately for Tuxedo 11g. Pricing will be available on the Oracle price list after product launch.

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on data center operational trends. Download the report here (registration required).