Software AG Launches Mainframe Application Monitoring

Software AG Thursday announced that it was launching a new tool to give its customers a combined view into a variety of products they are running on the mainframe.

Optimize for Infrastructure is a browser-based tool aimed at giving mainframe managers a way to monitor the Adabas database system and data management products, Software AG Natural applications, and WebMethods ApplinX user interfaces and EntireX services built with Eclipse wizards from legacy mainframe applications.

Software AG acquired WebMethods in 2007 and added it as a separate product division. ApplinX and EntireX are both products from that unit that modernize legacy applications to give them Web user interfaces or the additional functionality that allows them to function as services in a services-oriented architecture.

Optimize for Infrastructure is a management tool that lets IT administrators choose from many possible key performance indicators for each monitored product, then set rules for when to issue alerts due to a performance parameter falling below a certain threshold, said Peter Kuerpick, chief product officer, in the announcement.

"Today's IT managers... must be pre-emptive and proactive," he said. The tool allows managers to identify emerging problems and act on them before business activity is degraded, he said.

The tool tracks key performance indicators over time and established norms for those KPIs. The tool will then issue alerts when a parameter encapsulated in a rule is crossed, or alternatively, when a norm is violated. KPI rules can be backed up by rules governing how alerts are to be handled. For example, an IT manager can decide that he doesn't need an e-mail alert until the KPI has been violated three times.

Optimize for Infrastructure can receive input from other monitoring tools that help manage the Adabas database and Natural applications. The mainframe edition of the product is available immediately.

Software AG is located in Darmstadt, Germany, and Reston, Va., with 3,600 employees and 4,000 global customers. About one-third of the customers are in the U.S.