Unify Unveils Composer for Migration of Lotus Notes Applications to Java and .NET

March 20, 2007; 05:44 AM
Unify Corp. (OTC BB:UNFY), a global provider of software solutions to modernize mission critical applications into a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), today announced the release of Composer for Lotus Notes, a new solution for migrating Lotus Notes applications to SOA. Targeted at companies with Lotus Notes applications proliferated throughout the enterprise, Composer automatically service-enables the applications’ business processes and core functionality with Web services and converts the Notes data to a relational database for SOA deployment onto Java or Microsoft .Net.

The release of Composer for Lotus Notes builds on Unify’s ‘Enable SOA’ vision to help businesses modernize and service-enable mission critical legacy applications. By enabling Lotus Notes application modernization, Unify helps organizations free information previously locked within application silos, scale application performance and functionality, and standardize on their corporate infrastructure platform of choice. Composer accomplishes this by automatically converting the Notes documents to a relational database, the Notes ACL Security to a standard security interface, the application business logic to Web services and the User Interface to a Web 2.0 application.

Composer customer Mutual Boiler Re, a member of the FM Global group, one of the world’s largest commercial and industrial property insurance and risk management organizations, had decided to migrate core business applications off of Lotus Notes over to an SOA framework. Their first initiative was to migrate their non-structured Notes data into a relational database and convert associated forms and views from Notes to SOA in order to provide more secure and complete access of data contained in the business applications.

“We were able to achieve our time to market goals and realize considerable cost savings because of Composer’s automated migration of the database, user interface, business logic and all security profiles,” Stephen Konopelski, Mutual Boiler Re Vice President of Information Technology. “The loosely coupled SOA framework delivered by Composer offered us great flexibility for re-use and expanding into other user interface options such as a portal framework, handheld device or a traditional client desktop.”

To automate the migration of Lotus Notes applications to SOA, the Composer for Lotus Notes solution analyzes, service-enables and re-assembles four main processes:

• First, Composer migrates the Lotus Notes documents from an unstructured file system to a normalized relational database. The new normalized database provides global, yet controlled, access of the Notes data throughout the enterprise business intelligence or data warehousing solutions.
• The second process is the conversion of business logic to Web services. The Web services include the non-user interface LotusScript and Formula Language from the Lotus Notes applications. The Web services become a data abstraction layer to ensure that access to and interaction with the database is through a controlled interface. These Web services can be consumed by any SOAP compliant environment or composite application. Source code and documentation is included with the migrated application to allow for easy modification, enhancement and re-use from multiple development environments, including Eclipse or Visual Studio .NET.
• The third process converts the user interface to a Web 2.0 application. The new application utilizes AJAX technology to provide similar user interface behavior and functionality previously provided by the Lotus Notes desktop client, which minimizes user re-training time and costs.
• The fourth process migrates the ACL security infrastructure to the standard enterprise security system, including LDAP and Active Directory. The ACL security previously provided within the Lotus Notes application is retained and propagated throughout the new SOA-based applications’ Web services and user interface.

The result of the Composer solution is a deployable SOA-based application. Composer offers the flexibility to support either the Java or .NET platforms through its endorsed integration with Microsoft Share Point and .NET infrastructures as well as IBM WebSphere and Portlet Factory. By natively integrating with either Java or .NET, organizations can achieve their objectives to standardize, consolidate and scale their infrastructures by continuing to design, develop and leverage renewed legacy Notes applications. Composer reduces the costs and risks associated with re-writing or webifying Notes applications by providing migration that can be measured in weeks versus person-years.

“There are thousands of Lotus Notes enterprise customers who face the challenges of incorporating Notes applications into their SOA strategy, moving off Notes in support of corporate mandates or moving to Microsoft Exchange for email,” said Todd Wille, CEO of Unify. “While there are several options for migrating the email and collaboration capabilities of Lotus Notes, there is no solution, other than a complete rewrite, for migrating the custom Lotus Notes business applications. Composer is the only solution on the market that offers the opportunity to modernize and enhance Notes applications in an SOA environment.”

Wille concluded, “Using Composer, organizations can attain a 80 percent reduction in time to market, as compared to the cost and risk of rewriting the application in .NET or Java. Regardless of the technology platform, Composer standardizes, consolidates and scales Lotus Notes applications and enables easy and open integration with existing SOA platforms.”

About Unify

Unify enables Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for global organizations to modernize mission critical applications while maximizing legacy investments throughout the enterprise. Our enterprise software portfolio enhances SOA environments by improving application time-to-market metrics, increasing collaboration and service-enabling legacy information. Headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., Unify and recently acquired GUPTA Technologies LLC have offices in Redwood Shores, Munich, Paris, London and Australia. Visit www.unify.com .