RESTON, Va. -- New legacy modernization product creates Web services from COBOL/3GL applications in support of Service Oriented Architectures

Software AG has announced plans to acquire Sabratec, developer of ApplinX. This acquisition will significantly expand Software AG's legacy modernization capabilities. Software AG's ApplinX product will enable organizations to more easily and comprehensively integrate their legacy systems with Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs). In addition, ApplinX will help companies save time and cost in creating SOAs by turning COBOL/3GL applications into Web services, typically without the need to write new code.

According to Dale Vecchio, research director with Gartner Inc., "Service oriented architectures will increasingly become the preferred method for integrating existing mainframe applications into more modern business technology environments. Large mainframe organizations are no longer willing to replace the majority of their existing applications. The cost is too high and the risk is too great. A service oriented architecture is seen as the best way to strategically extend these applications to new environments."

Rather than requiring developers to restructure the COBOL/3GL "spaghetti code" at the core of many legacy applications, ApplinX captures vital business logic at the presentation level. For example, a repeated multi-step process used to enter a customer address change into a legacy accounting system can be captured intact (preserving transaction engines and business logic) and turned into a Web service. The Web service can then be invoked as part of a Service Oriented Architecture. This capability frees an organization's IT resources from the complex and time-consuming task of modifying or reconfiguring legacy system applications.

"Our customers have clearly indicated that the long-term value of their legacy systems resides in the ability to quickly and easily integrate those systems with Service Oriented Architectures via Web services," said Joe Gentry, vice president of Enterprise Transaction Systems for Software AG. "With the addition of ApplinX, Software AG's legacy modernization strategy will fully address this critical enterprise requirement by encompassing all major legacy system platforms."

Software AG customer Tulsa County (Oklahoma) currently uses the ApplinX product to Web-enable their Land Records Management System (LRMIS). "We have been very pleased with the speed and ease of use of ApplinX," said Tom Trimble, director of Management Information Systems for Tulsa County. "We look forward to using ApplinX as a central part of future legacy integration projects."

Software AG has recently taken steps to bolster its comprehensive legacy modernization strategy. In October 2004 the company announced the Adabas Replication Solution, which allows mainframe customers to efficiently replicate Adabas information to DB2, Oracle and other systems.

About Software AG's ApplinX

Software AG's ApplinX will allow enterprises to use their legacy assets - sessions, databases and transactions - to conveniently and cost-effectively build Web systems, Web services and composite applications. With ApplinX there is typically no need to install new software on the host, or write any additional code. Instead, modernization is accomplished using point-and-click composition tools and administration facilities.

ApplinX non-invasively turns Natural, COBOL, PL/1, RPG and Assembler systems into Web services or other standards-based components. ApplinX modernizes legacy applications in a variety of ways - including screen interfaces, direct program and transaction invocation, and direct database connectivity - using the same toolset. Therefore the ApplinX user does not need to learn different tools for different modernization approaches.

ApplinX is able to automatically generate standards-based front-end components, and supports popular front-end environments and technologies such as .NET, J2EE, Com Objects, Java Beans, ASP, JSP and XML. ApplinX also supports more than 10 legacy host platforms, including IBM mainframe (zSeries, iSeries), Unix, VMS, Unisys and Tandem. Reliability and scalability are achieved through built-in features such as connectivity optimization, recovery, fail-over and load balancing. Adapters to all major business applications are available.

About Software AG, Inc. (North America)

Software AG, Inc. recently celebrated 30 years in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area, providing enterprise-class data management and integration solutions to customers in sectors such as local, state and federal government; transportation; financial services and public retirement. Software AG, Inc.'s customers include the U.S. Navy, American Fidelity Assurance Company, CompuCredit, Inc., NYC Department of Buildings, the State of Alaska, the County of Sacramento and South Carolina Retirement Systems. Visit us at www.softwareagusa.com

Software AG provides a real-time single view of strategic business information by integrating applications and systems, in addition to modernizing mainframe and open system IT environments. Its offerings are based on the product families Adabas, Natural, EntireX and Tamino. Around 2,500 employees in 59 countries support the mission-critical systems of 3,000 customers around the world. The company maintains four R&D facilities across three continents. Founded in 1969, Software AG today is Europe's largest and most established systems software provider. It is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW). In 2003 Software AG posted 420 million euros in total revenue. The Internet address is www.softwareag.com.

Software AG and/or all Software AG products are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Software AG. All other product and company names mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only, and may be the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.