MQSeries.net :: View topic - Is accessing external DB within WMQI more efficient?

fnl

Hi,

Following scenario gives you a rough idea on how we develop our web applications:

1. a request message in XML format is sent out from the web server to the server on which the WMQIv2.1 is running.
2. The request message is then transformed to MRM and put on the remote queue that points to the local queue(triggered) on OS/390
3. A CICS background transaction is started, gets data from database, processes it based on certain business rules. Finally constructs the reply message and sends it back to MQ server
4. A reply flow gets the message, transforms to XML and put it on the queue for the front-end application

Now I am doing a new project. The front-end asks only two columns data from the mainframe database without any business rules behind. I want to access db2 table within WMQI instead of having the creation of queues and CICS applications. Since we have not done this way so far, I am not sure if this is the best solution. I have following questions/concerns:

What are the benefits of using external access DB
Is it more efficient than the scenario listed above
When the load is becoming the issue, will the ODBC connection cause problems? e.g. reducing the performance...
Any disadvantages, risks ?

Thank you very much for any ideas, advices

Fanny