Software AG has announced a new service-oriented development environment for its Natural application development platform, as the first Natural 2006 product portfolio release. Natural Business Services is currently the only full-lifecycle service development and runtime environment to operate natively on multiple mainframe platforms.
Devon Dalbock, Director of Software AG SA, says Natural Business Services enables developers to use modelling technology to create new service-oriented business functions that can take advantage of the proven transactional capabilities of the mainframe.
"By hiding the complexity of the mainframe, Natural application developers can provide enterprise-scale services for a Java, .NET or SOA environment much easier and faster," he says.
Natural Business Services is designed to increase developer productivity and reduce the cost for Natural developers to build service-oriented applications. In addition, Natural Business Services provides developers working in other environments, like Java and .NET, with the ability to invoke transaction-oriented services particularly suited to running on the mainframe, such as financial applications requiring extremely high throughput levels. As a result, Natural Business Services facilitates a more interactive working relationship between mainframe-based developers and server-based developers.
"The introduction of Natural Business Services signals a new era of productivity for developers using Natural," Dalbock says. "Finally, new service-based applications can be rapidly created that take full advantage of the mainframe's unique strengths, and that can also be re-used across platforms and in the broader context of the service-oriented approach being adopted by organisations worldwide."
Natural Business Services supports the entire service lifecycle:
* Creating services - A GUI development environment provides automatic code generation for service logic through pre-defined models as well as simplified development and testing of services.
* Securing services - Advanced security model specifically tailored to services integrated with existing security infrastructures enables fast adaptation of security credentials according to business changes.
* Deploying services - Deployment of services on Unix, Linux and mainframe (eg z/OS, z/VSE, BS2000/VSE), provides significant flexibility in choosing the runtime platform according to quality of service (QoS) requirements. Easy integration of data sources (eg Oracle, DB2, MS SQL Server - Adabas, VSAM, IMS/DB, XML or Web services) at run-time through built-in data interfaces.
* Managing services - Centrally managed services, audited for usage and configuration through the Natural Development/Runtime Repository. Services metadata is available to SOA Registries/Repositories, such as Software AG's CentraSite (or UDDI registries), enabling services to be covered in an overall enterprise governance initiative.
* Exposing and re-using services - Services can be exposed as Java, Visual Basic, C# classes or as Web services (SOAP, WSDL, HTTP) ensuring optimal reusability in different business scenarios. Natural Business Services also provides an integrated tool environment with support for both Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse, so Java or .NET application developers have no need to learn Natural in order to re-use the services.
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Software AG provides a full range of products and services to deliver a Service-oriented architecture (SOA) IT infrastructure, based on over 35 years' experience in high-performance databases, application development tools and integration technologies. Its technology offers process-driven integration through legacy modernisation and SOA-based integration.
Software AG helps its customers achieve a competitive advantage through flexible and adaptive business processes based on fast and easy integration of existing IT assets. It supports the mission-critical systems of over 3 000 customers globally. Software AG is represented in around 60 countries with more than 2 600 employees. It is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW). In 2004 Software AG posted $411 million in total revenue. www.softwareag.com.
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