NetManage has unveiled an application that helps
companies measure and allocate resources as they introduce SOA
SOA allows enterprises to extend legacy applications rather than having to
replace them with more modern software, but it also tends to be more
inefficient from a resource perspective, requiring more bandwidth and CPU
utilization.
The NetManage SOA Planner, introduced today, is a server product installed
on a network that non-invasively listens to host system interactions in real
time to capture common usage patterns.
The application tracks end-user processes without impacting operations,
which means end-users don’t have to be trained or even aware that a new
piece of software is being run.
System architects can also use the captured data on transactional traffic
patterns to make more informed decisions about which services are essential
when planning and deploying an SOA.
Zvi Alon, president and CEO of NetManage, said that most companies beginning
an SOA implementation don’t even know where to start.
“We’re helping them take baby steps,” he said during a dinner with reporters
and analysts.
Archie Roboostoff, director of product management at the Cupertino,
Calif.-based company, explained that the Planner fits into NetManage’s
incremental approach to SOA integrations.
NetManage helps companies plan for, deploy and eventually incrementally
increase the number of SOA-enabled elements into their infrastructure.
Peter Kastner, vice president of enterprise technology research at Aberdeeen
Group, noted that the Planner addresses the fact that under SOA, “you have
radically changed workloads.”
He explained that while older applications can manage transactions in a
single instruction, XML used by service-oriented applications require more
server activity.
“The Planner sits there and watches transactions going by and helps IT
planners understand how capacity will be changing under their SOA
applications,” he told internetnews.com.
“Right now people are just wetting their fingers and seeing which way the
wind is blowing,” he added.
Also according to Kastner, integration costs represent 40 percent of IT
budgets worldwide — he pegged the global IT market at approximately $51.3
trillion — pointing to the value of such a tool.
Planner “fills a need at a time when IT organizations are ramping up what
they put into production,” he said.
“They need to do some serious performance capacity planning.”
According to Kastner, the NetManage application is the first of its kind on
the market, and couldn’t come at a more opportune time for enterprises.
Interviews with chief executive officers indicate that SOA is the next
thing, but, warned Kastner, “there won’t be a big bang.”
Indeed, most enterprises are still in the early phases of their SOA
implementations.
Research from Aberdeen Group shows that most companies prefer to move slowly
into SOA.
Sixty percent of companies surveyed plan to adopt a “lessons learned”
approach, using a serial, incremental approach to SOA modernization
projects.
