Software Tool Gives New Life To Legacy Data

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February 19, 2001 (12:57 PM EST)

By Charles Bermant,

Enterprise software developer WRQ is aiming to help corporations with a new application for viewing and coordinating a variety of source material from a single screen.

Verastream 8.0, which will ship next month, is part of the company's Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) strategy, which allows corporate systems to connect to one another and to the Internet.

"Companies have been incorporating new systems so quickly that they don't have time to rebuild the code," said Andy Loats, manager for systems engineering. "This allows them to use the logic they've used for years, and create a centralized integration point without having to develop new systems."

Verastream focuses upon legacy and host systems, where 70 percent of all corporate data resides. Accessing and integrating this data into one source is the only way to truly integrate all business processes, according to the Seattle developer.

The new version of Verastream, which incorporates a previous WRQ product called Apptrieve, includes several database and application adapters. The product also boasts an integration engine designed to adapt to both current and future environments.

WRQ, with Verastream, needs to position itself as an end and not just the means, said Dan Sholler, a senior analyst for the Meta Group in Stamford, Conn.

"They need to prove that their technology goes beyond that of an adapter and become the centerpiece of a company's EAI strategy," Sholler said.

Sholler believes many companies will find the Verastream option the most favorable of the three available paths.

The other two -- building from a relational database or developing a new API to an old application -- may not be the right road.

"In that case, it can be impossible to build a new API without completely restructuring the application, which is not a choice that a lot of people will make," he said.

Chris Byler, rapid applications manager for ATT Business Services, uses Apptrieve and is eagerly awaiting the new version for a number of reasons.

"This makes the actual dealing with the data easier," Byler said. "All of our companies are integrated with legacy systems and spend a lot of time looking at various screens. With this product, we can create new models that can combine all the data into a logical format."

To promote Verastream, WRQ is leveraging its experience in backend systems in the hope that companies suffering from data diversity overload will turn to it first.

"We are way ahead of anybody else," product marketing manager Rebecca Johnson said. "We've been around for 20 years, we're profitable, and we're not going away. All this gives us a leg up on the competition."