lustratus LiteBytes

I was reading about the new…

…Micro Focus Server for SOA, and I wonder if Micro Focus has missed the point? The company seems to target this product as the route to bringing COBOL legacy applications into a SOA environment. Indeed, I quote,

With Micro Focus Server for SOA, COBOL applications can be deployed as web services without requiring the purchase of any third-party software

Micro Focus seems to think that all that is required for SOA purposes is the ability to turn COBOL applications into web services. I guess this reflects the fact that the Micro Focus viewpoint is from the language side – therefore, the major challenge is to provide a container for the COBOL applications to execute in, with a standard, web services interface. But SOA is so much more than just a connectivity mechanism. A key issue with legacy integration, as I have discussed previously in this blog, is the ability to create the RIGHT SOA services – not turn any COBOL application into a web service. Orchestration is a must – otherwise the SOA will become quickly swamped by vast numbers of individual COBOL web services, causing performance and throughput to suffer and producing an unmanageable mess.

Micro Focus may be providing another way to address part of the legacy integration problem in an SOA, but what users need is a way to address all the SOA issues, preferably in one tool. So, the answer in my opinion is Yes – Micro Focus Server for SOA has indeed missed the point.

Steve