New Legacy Integration Tools Available from Red Oak Software

by Alex Woodie

If you can't beat them, join them. That motto seems to be driving the market for legacy integration software, as Fortune 500 companies still haven't gotten rid of their mainframes and OS/400 servers, and software companies continue to develop new tools to access them. One of the newest legacy integration tools comes from Red Oak Software, a privately held company in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, that last month announced a new business process modeling program called Legacy Navigator.

Red Oak is one of a handful of software companies that are equipping themselves with what industry analyst group Gartner calls "programmatic integration" tools. These tools are similar to screen-scraper products, which intercept screen definition languages, like 5250, and transform them into Windows or Web browser GUIs. While the new programmatic integration tools are also noninvasive programs that rely on data streams for their input, a key difference is that these tools allow a higher degree of development, including, for example, the capability to link multiple legacy screens together to create new composite applications.

Red Oak's new Legacy Navigator is one such tool for creating composite applications. Written entirely in Java, the product includes three modules: an XML Screen Definition component, used to capture and define elements in 5250 and 3270 screens; the Process Model Editor, to visually create new processes from iSeries and mainframe assets; and a runtime component called the XML Process Model Engine, which connects to the Legacy Integrator (which, in turn, executes the actual processes).

The Process Model Editor is Legacy Navigator's primary component. After legacy screens have been captured by the XML Screen Definition component, the Process Model Editor lets developers visually create new business logic based on those legacy applications. Red Oak officials say that mapping the business processes in a visual environment makes it easier to understand an application's navigation paths, especially with complex applications, such as those requiring more than seven screens to complete a certain process. A visual modeling environment also makes it easier to change the process flow as legacy applications change, the company says.

Legacy Navigator was developed with a careful consideration of the requirements of Red Oak's customers, which have large and complex legacy-based infrastructures, says George Cummings, Red Oak president and chief executive officer. "All of these [customer] applications are comprised of hundreds of screens, representing thousands of individual interaction transactions," Cummings says. "Legacy Navigator . . . permits these transactions to be visually defined, captured, programmatically integrated, and easily maintained."

Legacy Navigator is the newest edition to Red Oak's Transaction Integration product line. One of the hallmarks of Red Oak's integration line is full integration with any of the major integration broker platforms, like those from IBM CrossWorlds, webMethods, SeeBeyond Technology, and TIBCO Software. Red Oak's software is also compatible with Java-based application servers, including IBM WebSphere and BEA Systems WebLogic.

Legacy Navigator is available now, bundled with Legacy Integrator. The development version of the Legacy Navigator/Legacy Integrator bundle starts at $30,000. The production version starts at $45,000. For more information, go to www.redoaksoftware.com.

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