Software AG Expands Application Modernization Portfolio with Relativity Technologies Partnership

Business Wire, March 5, 2008

* Offers enterprises an additional "on-ramp" to the full-feature SOA delivered by the webMethods Application Modernization Suite

* Relativity Technologies' industry-leading technology addresses critical requirements for preparing mainframe applications for SOA enablement

* Global reseller agreement underscores Software AG's commitment to provide customers with a standards-based, best-in-class solution for application modernization

HANNOVER, Germany -- Software AG, a global leader in business infrastructure software, and Relativity Technologies, Inc. today announced a global alliance and reseller agreement. Under the terms of the partnership, Software AG will offer Relativity Technologies' flagship solution for application modernization, the Modernization Workbench[R], as a complimentary component of the webMethods Application Modernization Suite on a global basis. The Modernization Workbench is a proven and world-class product, which is used by over 400 organizations, including seven of the ten largest financial service providers, to manage and modernize core and legacy applications.

"The webMethods Application Modernization Suite is a universal solution for leveraging all of an organization's mainframe assets within a service-oriented architecture. Our partnership with Relativity Technologies works to ensure that we can provide the entire market with a complete offering that is truly end-to-end," said Dr. Peter Kurpick, President and Chief Product Officer for the webMethods division and member of the Software AG Executive Board. "From a functional perspective, Relativity Technologies provides a needed on-ramp to SOA by transforming existing mainframe applications into SOA-ready code. Through this approach, enterprises can go beyond the surface - their current interfaces - to fully unlock the business logic, rules and processes that are often deeply embedded in their enterprise systems. This allows them to 'leverage and extend' core systems as a faster, safer and cheaper alternative to 'rip and replace.'"

In terms of high-volume, transactional processing, many enterprises have concluded that mainframe-based systems cannot be beat in terms of the cost-effectiveness, scalability, reliability and security that they provide. Another factor causing businesses to update rather than retire their mainframe systems are the business continuity risks associated with wholesale replacement. Driven by these factors, enterprises have increased their focus on Application Portfolio Management (APM) as a means to make critical decisions about where IT-Business misalignments exist, measure the degree of misalignment to determine priorities, and execute application modernization and application maintenance activities to boost application portfolio alignment.

According to a recent report from Forrester Research, Topic Overview: Legacy Applications (August 30, 2007), "[a]s an industry, IT tends to dismiss rather than reuse previous technology genres and, as a result, has spent vast sums to rip and replace technology for technology's sake, often at the expense of business value. With value-to-the-business being the rallying cry of 21st century IT, CIOs are struggling to reconcile the ways of the past with value-to-the-business, creating a resurgence in interest in legacy modernization. CIOs who wish to survive must prove to their business peers that they are good stewards of the organization's existing technology investments by selectively pruning bad legacy technology, rather then ripping and replacing good legacy technology."1

"With proven leadership in mainframe systems and SOA, the partnership of Software AG and Relativity Technologies is a clear win for customers seeking a single choice for application modernization," said Steve Maysonave, chairman, president and CEO of Relativity Technologies, Inc. "By using our technology to enhance the capabilities offered by the webMethods suite, enterprises can take advantage of a turnkey and automated process for the modernization of their application code into reusable Web services. Where Software AG differentiates itself is in the multitude of ways that enterprises can leverage these available services as they go beyond just service enablement to create a full-fledge SOA environment."

The webMethods Application Modernization Suite, SOA Edition is a comprehensive solution for enabling, managing and governing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) utilizing mainframe assets as well as distributed systems. It encompasses top-ranked products, including webMethods ApplinX for service enablement of screen interfaces, EntireX for service enablement of programming logic, the webMethods ESB for service orchestration and run-time management, and CentraSite for service governance, lifecycle management, and policy enforcement. Relativity Technologies' platform will be offered as a supported option for automating the analysis, documentation and refactoring of existing IT applications so that they can be consumed and prepared for use within the SOA created by the webMethods suite.