The goal of CIOs today is to increase IT -- and therefore company -- efficiency and flexibility. HP calls this the adaptive enterprise, IBM uses the on demand computing moniker, and Microsoft promotes agility. Whatever your preferred term, the objective is the same: 1) get the most out of existing technology resources; and 2) build an infrastructure that supports change, whether it is integrating an acquisition, supporting a product rollout, or complying with a government regulation.

IT believes that moving to a service oriented architecture (SOA) will help meet these objectives. Service-enabling software (by adding service-aware interfaces that generate and consume XML and Web services) lets companies integrate existing systems as well as create new composite apps based on multiple services. In addition, with a services infrastructure built on XML and Web services in place, corporate systems will be more modular and standards-based and, therefore, they'll adapt easier to changing needs and circumstances.

But while new software and updates to third-party applications may arrive service-ready, the majority of existing software needs to be retrofitted. And to retrofit systems, IT must first understand what software it has in-house. While this may sound simple, large companies in reality have hundreds or thousands of applications, some running on mainframes or minicomputers, such as IBM's AS/400 series, and others relying on distributed computing solutions built on UNIX, Windows, or Linux servers and PCs or Web browsers.

Fortunately, there are solutions that can help IT understand its existing software portfolio. New Rowley recently spoke with two vendors approaching this opportunity from different angles.

Relativity Technologies demystifies legacy apps and can prep them for a services future

While cutting-edge applications tend to get the lion's share of attention from the media and analysts, large companies depend on mainframe and minicomputer legacy applications to run their businesses. The bulk of this software is often 20 years old or older. Aside from annual maintenance and modification -- and perhaps some Y2K-related triage -- these legacy apps continue to chug along in relative obscurity, often with current IT staff having little understanding of how they work.

In general, IT would like to do two things with legacy apps. First and foremost, it wants to keep the applications functioning and perhaps add some enhancements. Second, it wants to expose at least some of these legacy applications as services that other systems can use. To accomplish these two goals, Relativity Technologies offers its Modernization Workbench suite. This set of tools helps users understand, analyze, enhance, and even service-enable legacy apps.

How does it work? The Modernization Workbench offering starts by loading legacy software into a database and then uses a specialized tool called a parser to examine the code and determine how it functions. With the application and an analysis of how it works stored on a server, IT and business analysts can then use tools on their PCs to do things like streamline the software by removing redundant code or modify business processes. Included in the suite is a tool that can make the legacy application or just some of its components available as a Web service.

For potential buyers concerned about working with the vendor, especially since the company has refocused this year with a new mission and new executives, the risk should be mitigated by two facts: 1) that IBM is a proponent of the package, and 2) Relativity Technologies reports that Modernization Workbench is the core technology enabler for IBM's Legacy Transformation Services Practice.

LogicLibrary helps companies understand and reuse recent software and related information

LogicLibrary offers companies a place to catalog, access, and report on what it calls software development assets (SDAs). The Logidex solution creates a giant, searchable digital library of software and other related information, including documentation, business process models, and development best practices. Logidex also comes prestocked with content on Java and .NET from Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, respectively. For IT and business analysts, this wealth of information will often be seamlessly accessible in the tools they already use for activities like modeling, writing code, and testing software.

How does it work? IT, on its own or with help of LogicLibrary's professional services staff, builds a company-specific schema for the SDAs it is interested in leveraging. This schema is used to create metadata for each SDA brought into Logidex. Metadata for and links to code, best practices, and other items are then created. Some SDAs, such as those in a version control repository, can be imported automatically. Others, such as a project requirements list in an Excel spreadsheet on a file server, can be brought into the system manually. Using these methods, IT can load its Logidex database with items it cares about and ignore the countless Visual Basic hacks or other unimportant software scattered throughout the company's servers and PCs. Once populated with useful metadata and links, the SDA library is ready to be used by all participants in the software development process.

One interesting feature of Logidex is that IT can run reports to see just how many SDAs are being reused. It can then use the output to help justify the Logidex solution, demonstrate the success of corporate software reuse, and validate the move to an SOA.

Worried about working with three-year-old LogicLibrary? Potential users should be comforted by the strong IBM heritage of the vendor's executive and engineering staff and its marquee customers like CNA and Charles Schwab & Co.