NetManage Looks to SOAs with Librados Buy

NetManage agreed to acquire privately held Librados for an undisclosed
sum. The deal would give NetManage application adapters to help its Host Services Platform server
applications via service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services .

Specifically, NetManage is aiming to expand its SOA strategy for the
Microsoft .NET and J2EE camps, making the
Librados application adapters a cornerstone of the NetManage Composite
Application Server roadmap.

NetManage hopes customers with
integration concerns will find its augmented Host Services Platform
attractive, because it will allow them to reuse existing applications when
building new systems within an SOA.

This is because adapters eliminate the tedious and complex hand-coding
required to connect disparate back-end and e-business systems.
Reusing applications, one of the tenets of an SOA, is cost-effective and it saves developers
the time and money it would take to manually write new code.

There has been an explosion in SOA adoption and Web services
in the last year. And because SOAs are driving customers to access their applications from a network in a
new, easier fashion, NetManage believes the timing of the acquisition is important.

The Java-based Librados Adapter Library will help application
functionality to be exposed in such formats as XML and Web
services.

Librados is well known in integration software circles because of its
royalty-free business model. Customers include integration software vendors
Embarcadero Technologies, Metamatrix and Digital Harbor.

NetManage officials believe the purchase, should it succeed, will put
NetManage in a leadership position for accessing corporate applications and
information. The Host Services Platform provides traditional emulation and
composite applications.

ZapThink analyst Jason Bloomberg told internetnews.com NetManage is
accomplishing a couple of things by acquiring Librados.

“The Librados adapter technology rounds out NetManage’s Host Services
Platform, enabling them to offer service-oriented
architecture capabilities to customers with a much broader range of
host-based legacy applications,” Bloomberg said. “On the other hand, this
acquisition opens up a new market for NetManage, as they bring the Librados
technology to their customer base.”

On a competitive front, Bloomberg said the blend of NetManage’s business
with Librados’ unusual licensed source code model
promises better SOA enablement and more flexible legacy adapters.

“In other words, they’re positioning themselves to be an iWay killer,” he
said, referring to iWay Software, a Librados rival and unit of Information
Builders that currently offers more than 250 application adapters.