Software AG Pays $26M for Mainframe UI Tools
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The sale marks Jacadaâs move out of the application modernization and middleware software business in order to concentrate on development of call center systems.
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Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry will consider company's open-source desktop suite for future bids.
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Microsoft Corp has signed a new 500m pound ($920m) contract to supply a desktop operating system and software to the UK&#39;s National Health Service, including provisions to develop a tailored interface for clinical systems.
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Wants your huddling masses IBM is introducing paid support for users of development tools using Eclipse, while expanding its own products running on the open source framework.â¦
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The latest acquisition is another sign of the importance of the software development tools business.
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IBM Rational Software Corp. today released updated desktop development tools designed to eliminate common problems from distributed development efforts.
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SAP America Inc. won a $35 million contract to replace the US Postal Service&#39;s 25-year-old human resources software. The contract covers $14 million in license and maintenance fees for the MySAP Business Suite
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InfoWorld - In recent months, the&#160;acquisition of SOA player webMethods&#160;has been the dominant news coming out of Software AG, but the middleware company also continues to hone its mainframe software and strategy.
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IBM  and Lehman Brothers  have agreed to pay nearly US$17 million for 7.7 percent of Kingdee International Software Group Ltd. , aiming to establish an alliance under which Big Blue will help the Chinese software firm re-design its products and expand globally.
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GT Software and PolarLake announce a partnership to enable mainframe legacy applications to be fully integrated into a standards-based integration platform built on XML and Web services.
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(InfoWorld) - In recent months, theÂ acquisition of SOA player webMethodsÂ has been the dominant news coming out of Software AG, but the middleware company also continues to hone its mainframe software and strategy. Software AG now has a CTO heading up its mainframe ETS (enterprise transaction systems) business. Joe Gentry, previously ETS senior vice president, has recently taken on the additional responsibility of steering development of new versions of the vendor's Adabas database and Natural programming language. Historically, Software AG CEO Karl-Heinz Streibich had overseen mainframe software development, but he has plenty on his plate particularly now that the vendor has closed its $546 million purchase of webMethods. Software AG closed the acquisition on June 1 and is nowÂ working on integrating its SOA tools with those of webMethods. The company feels that having a CTO will have send an important message to customers and the market that Software AG is looking at ways to innovate and take technology leadership with its software. Gentry divides his time equally between the U.S. and Europe (Software AG has its main headquarters in Germany). Last month, enterprise applications vendorÂ SAP AG announced the appointment of its first CTOÂ as a way to lay out a clear road map for the company's products and speak to particular areas of new development alongside ongoing software rollouts. In February of last year, Software AG announced new releases of its mainframe products -- Adabas 2006 and Natural 2006 -- centered around support for SOA development and Web services. The next versions of the products could appear within 18 months to two years, Gentry said, because Software AG operates on a release cycle for new software every two to three years. The next version of Adabas is likely to focus on ways to handle unstructured data, such as online information, as well as provide better Google-like search optimization, he added. Data archiving is also becoming more critical with Software AG anticipating that the amount of information stored in mainframe archives will double over the next few years. Another key goal for a new release of Adabas will be meeting the needs of so-called extreme transaction processing applications, which place heavy demands on databases and include credit-card processing and gaming applications. Software AG intends to continue its push around support for open-source technology, planning to add AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML)Â capability to the Natural application development platform with the first implementation out by the end of the third quarter. The vendor already provides an Eclipse interface for Natural and is a member both of the Eclipse Foundation and of the OpenAjax Alliance consortia. Software AG will also do more to integrate its newly acquired webMethods technology with both Adabas and Natural so users can generate Web services using the mainframe software, which then can be called by the webMethods products. IBM is Software AG's main mainframe software competitor. At the same time, the vendor enjoys a strong relationship with IBM's mainframe hardware division. Gentry doesn't see a need for Software AG to acquire additional mainframe technology, but the vendor is taking a look at several companies where an acquisition would yield an additional customer base. Those users would then potentially end up moving over to Adabas and Natural. Software AG is also keen to continue to grow on a geographic basis, having recently established its own operations in both Israel and Japan. "Next year, we move into Brazil and Latin America," Gentry said. One method of expanding is by acquiring the existing distributor for the vendor's software in a given location, which was the case in Israel, he added.
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Global Software, a developer of spreadsheet analytic tools, has added thre new customers and a distribution partner in recent weeks.
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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ is embarking on a five-year campaign to promote mainframe computers by making the systems easier to configure and operate, and to promote them as an alternative to server network computing. IBM is investing $100 million to enable information technology administrators to manage mainframes in enterprises and help programmers to more easily automate the process of developing and deploying software to run on mainframes, the company said Wednesday. "This is the first step in a five-year journey to make the mainframe easier to use," said Bob Hoey, worldwide vice president of sales for IBM's System z mainframes. Some large enterprises with networks of 30-50 servers are potential candidates for migration to an entry-level mainframe system, Hoey said, although enterprises with fewer than 30 servers may not be. Still, a lot of IT managers may be intimidated by the complexity of operating a mainframe even though it has advantages over server network architecture, he said. Among the features IBM will add to its mainframe capabilities: Automated configuration checking for system administrators to predict and avoid technical problems; improved software asset management; and a simplified user interface for network configuration and management designed with "existing IT staff and the new generation of IT workers in mind," IBM said. Making the mainframe more approachable to a new generation of programmers makes sense to Vernon Turner, an IDC analyst. "Kids today coming out of college who grew up enjoying a different look and feel when they are programming and when they are trying to get their systems up. At least this look and feel is something they are familiar with," Turner said of the user interface IBM is adding to its mainframe capabilities. A mainframe could be a more efficient use of computing power than a server network, said IBM's Hoey. Some Intel-powered servers may have utilization levels of as little as 5 percent to 15 percent and Unix-based servers just 15 percent to 25 percent, Hoey said, because some servers may be dedicated to running only one software application. But a mainframe that combines all of an enterprise's applications onto one computer can operate at 80 percent to 100 percent utilization. "From a return-on-assets perspective, a mainframe does a better job of managing workload," he said. Market research confirms mainframes remain a corporate staple. According to Gartner Inc., large mainframe users have been increasing their mainframe environments -- measured in MIPS (millions of instructions per second) -- steadily over the past four years. Most of these users will continue to increase their installed MIPS at a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent to 20 percent through 2009, Gartner estimates. IDC reports the mainframe continues to hold its ground against competing platforms. Support for new Linux and Java workloads, for instance, will help drive MIPS shipments up 14.2 percent in 2006 and 9.2 percent next year, the research firm reports. In the big picture, however, IDC expects mainframe spending to drop to 6.2 percent ($3.9 billion) of overall server spending in 2010, from 8.9 percent ($4.9 billion) in 2005.
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(InfoWorld) - Software AG will adopt the webMethods name for its Crossvision range of SOA (services oriented architecture) products, executives said Friday, outlining how they will integrate staff and products following the company'sÂ acquisition of webMethods. To eliminate one of the few overlaps in their product lines, Software AG will adopt webMethods' BPM (business process management) offering, and stop selling Fujitsu's Interstage BPM software, which it has distributed since December 2004. However, Software AG will support its existing Interstage customers for at least five years, said Peter KÃ¼rpick, board member responsible for research and development. Another area of overlap is in SOA management and governance, where KÃ¼rpick expects to see Software AG's CentraSite SOA registry and repository combined with webMethods' recently acquired Infravio SOA governance tools by the end of the year. "We are strong in managing metadata, and they are strong in governance policies, rules and regulations," he said. The combined product will likely retain the CentraSite name, he said. All other areas of the companies' product lines are complementary, and there will be no need for customers to migrate, KÃ¼rpick said. KÃ¼rpick will lead the integration of the companies' product development teams, where he expects managers from both companies will take senior roles. It won't be like a classic merger where "you own the body but the head and legs are gone," he said. He sees little need for layoffs as the product development teams are combined: "We already have an R&D force that is 50 percent low-cost, mostly in India, some in Bulgaria, so we already have a good cost structure," he said. Although there may be little scope for payroll savings, CEO Karl-Heinz Streibich expects earnings to improve this year as the two sales forces -- which will remain separate at least through the end of 2007 -- exploit opportunities to cross-sell the two product ranges. The combined entity's revenue will grow organically by 10 percent over the next 12 to 15 months, he said.
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The software giant is expected to formally donate the developer tools to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance, an engineering working group.
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SAP AG  on Wednesday unveiled  a long-delayed line of Web-based software called Business  ByDesign that costs $149 per user, per month, and is at the  heart of a strategy to accelerate the company's sales growth.
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IBM  and Lehman Brothers   have agreed to pay nearly US$17 million for 7.7 percent  of Kingdee International Software Group Ltd. (0268.HK), aiming  to establish an alliance under which Big Blue will help the  Chinese software firm re-design its products and expand  globally.