Attachmate Takes SOA in Stride, Delivering Tools for the Service-Oriented Host -SOH- that Go Beyond the Hype -Web Services-

Business Wire, Oct 4, 2004

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A stepping stone, from UIs to services enablement, for corporate hosts moving to the modern enterprise

Attachmate Corporation, with 20 years of extensive host expertise, today announced its service-oriented host (SOH) strategy and offered a preview of its SOH product set. SOH removes the current constraints on host assets in the enterprise--integration difficulties, expensive customization, divergence with technology direction--and supplies the right tools for service enablement--going beyond Web services and taking the unique nature of data, applications and user interfaces into account. Attachmate's Synapta(TM) family of services-enabling products, available November 2004, abstracts host information layers so IT can services-orient their host systems at a logical pace.

"The way SOA is being talked about, it sounds more like a destination or specific technology than an approach that matches the natural evolution of IT environments," said Jean-Jacques Dubray, Technical Architect at Attachmate. "The reality is that our customers face business problems often tied to technological dependencies, and services are a contemporary answer to solving some of those problems. We coined 'SOH' to articulate our belief that services offer a bridge between enterprise-wide reliance on host systems and future technology directions--we'd be remiss to present customers with technology solutions that only widen the gap that a services orientation purports to fill."

Synapta helps organizations:

--Streamline host application workflow to meet increased demands for customer efficiency

--Create intuitive user interfaces for new user groups (e.g. partners, suppliers, Internet self-service)

--Rapidly develop new applications for the Web (weeks vs. months)

--Create composite applications, enriching the host application with Web services, custom code, and data from external databases

--Transform host data and logic into reusable services for new application development

"There are obviously more than a couple of avenues toward services," said Markus Nitschke, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Attachmate. "Being competitive in our market requires extensive knowledge to accompany well designed products. Assumptions must be questioned to decide on the best tool for the job. For example, are Web services the best route to reusing host systems? Not necessarily. There are advantages to a services orientation that can be captured without Web services--for example, service-enabling specific host transactions can increase ROI, but Web services don't align well with the synchronous dependencies of mainframes, so we'd recommend a different approach in that case. It is at least as important to understand the characteristics of the applications earmarked for services as it is to turn them into services in the first place."

"Attachmate can draw on extensive host knowledge to help our customers place their host on equal footing with newer technologies, including routes that enable them to take part in a service-oriented architecture."

For more on SOH and Synapta, please contact Attachmate.

About Attachmate

Attachmate, one of the world's largest privately held software companies, is the only all-mainframe-connectivity expert in the industry. Only its technology and services enable Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises full access to and leverage of all mainframe-resident business logic and data via any and all types of connections. A BEA(R) Partner, Sun iForce(sm) Partner and Unisys(R) partner, Attachmate(R) delivers productivity-focused innovation to customers. News and information is available at http://www.attachmate.com or by calling Attachmate worldwide headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, at 425.644.4010.

(C) 2004 Attachmate Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Attachmate is a registered trademark and Synapta is a trademark of Attachmate Corporation.