Micro Focus announced the availability of SOA Express 8.0. The new version adds support for direct deployment into IBM's Customer Information Control System (CICS), enabling users to accelerate the deployment of Web services by reusing their existing CICS TS mainframe infrastructure in a simplified and even faster 2-Tier model. This additional support provides customers with more options for their service oriented architecture (SOA) deployment environment. In addition to CICS, SOA Express supports SOA deployments over .Net and J2EE application servers. As a result, organizations are able to migrate existing, core applications to an SOA as Web services regardless of platform or technology base.

SOA provides a strategic route to web enablement, integration and modernization of existing applications, providing rapid delivery of new business initiatives. Micro Focus SOA Express enables the reuse and modernization of existing mainframe applications without code changes by unlocking the business logic embedded within these applications and delivering them to an SOA. Standards based Web services can then be utilized by teams across the organization rendering proven COBOL business logic accessible to Java, .NET and Web teams for extension across the enterprise.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina is using SOA Express to replace their existing Web and desktop enablement solution. "The ability to provide our customers and the customer service staff with rapid and accurate access to information is core to our business. SOA Express has enabled us to deliver Web and desktop access with dramatically improved performance on our platform of choice," said Keith Wild, Director of Internal Resource Management at BC/BSSC.

SOA Express enables a standards-based SOA architecture as part of a performance improvement initiative. "The ability with SOA Express to utilize the high speed LINKCICS interface was critical to us. We needed to rapidly deliver the much needed performance improvement while preserving our existing business systems," added Wild.

The ability to migrate core applications to an SOA regardless of deployment environment allows organizations to develop modernization strategies that are agile, maintainable and adaptable to meet future requirements.

Commenting on the topic, Randy Heffner, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, noted that, "SOA's improved flexibility allows you to change quickly to meet changing business demands. It's not just industry hype, either. SOA is delivering results that make people want more of it.”

"You can implement SOA incrementally, starting with small, near-term requirements and later expanding SOA usage as other business needs arise. And you don't have to invest heavily to build an extensive architecture before you can see real benefits. You can use SOA to leverage existing applications and infrastructure to solve business problems without having to rebuild everything from scratch. These benefits make SOA attractive to IT shops that are working to deliver business transformation and flexibility via faster, lower-cost integration and solution delivery." (Topic Overview: Service-Oriented Architecture", Forrester Research, Inc., June 2007).

One of the key drivers for a successful modernization initiative is the ability to integrate disparate applications - whether they are off the mainframe, based on newer technologies or even generated outside the enterprise. At the same time, it is critical to maintain the functionality and utility of the core applications being moved to SOA.

Stuart McGill, CTO, Micro Focus observes, "SOA Express enables our customers to take the value housed in these critical, existing applications at the heart of their business and translate them into Web services that meet new, strategic infrastructure requirements - all without changing the original business logic that makes them so valuable. Following our recently announced offer to acquire NetManage, we look forward to further strengthening our SOA solution portfolio."