You might not be able to hear the sounds of new infrastructures being built, but make no mistake - there's an unprecedented amount of IT construction taking place throughout corporate America. Integration projects are tying together existing programs and systems; applications are being fitted for Web services; and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) will help bring it all together.
Before companies can even think about integrating applications and building SOAs, however, they have to find existing software assets, figure out how they are currently being used and determine where they fit in new projects.
That's no easy task. Companies have undertaken thousands of application initiatives over the years, creating a vast spaghetti-works of software development assets (SDAs) which are often distributed worldwide. These assets include applications, components, documentation, frameworks, and patterns. Rarely is there a centralized source cataloging these assets and more importantly, any way to determine their relationship to technical architectures and business practices. Consequently, many companies fail to leverage their existing assets.
The absence of a strategic software reuse program results in needless new investments, reduced productivity and slower time-to-market.
In order to embrace the promised benefits of application integration, Web services and SOAs, businesses need to organize their messy IT closet. The ability to aggregate and provide ready access to software assets is central to the success of these new development initiatives.
Enter LogicLibrary, a fast-growing start-up that offers enterprise users the software and services they need to start and manage integration, Web services and SOA projects. The company's flagship product, Logidex, is a software development asset (SDA) mapping and discovery engine that allows application developers, business analysts and architects to quickly search a library of vital software assets to identify those that best match business and technical requirements for new application development and integration. This includes legacy applications, components (.NET, Java, CORBA), XML schemas, patterns and other key building blocks of application development.
Unlike component catalogs, which merely list software assets, Logidex provides a one-of-a-kind Active Design that enables users to search based on the technical and business processes the SDAs support. It's the only solution that recognizes what components exist, where they're located, and understands how each fits into a company's business and technical landscape.
Over and above its unrivaled mapping and modeling capabilities, Logidex includes a number of unique and valuable features that make it the most complete solution for enterprises looking for a scalable and automated process for managing thousands of assets:
As integration, Web services and SOA initiatives grow, the resulting software assets will go through the roof. Information on each service, and links to the business processes they enable, must be stored in a metadata catalog, along with the mountain of information that has accumulated through the years. The ability to aggregate and provide ready access to this metadata is central to the success of new projects. Gartner, Inc. believes metadata management is "essential to reduce the escalating complexity of management and maintenance of integrated software platforms." (Gartner, Inc., "Predicts 2004: Application Integration and Middleware," December 19, 2003)
Logidex dramatically accelerates the deployment and ongoing management of the software building blocks necessary for integration, Web services and SOAs. Logidex's complete picture of SDAs - and their business context - is the blueprint needed for implementing and managing these assets throughout the enterprise. Without the Logidex library, enterprises waste precious resources - often rewriting software code they already have, spending more money than they need to, and worst of all, falling behind competitors.
LogicLibrary is at the intersection of two enormous market opportunities: application development ($27B by 2007, according to IDC) and Web services ($28B by 2005, according to Gartner Dataquest). Industry analysts at ZapThink, named LogicLibrary as one of the few vendors providing "the critical tools that enable Service orientation beyond simple point-to-point Web services enablement." And some of the world's largest enterprise organizations use Logidex in their development, reuse and SOA initiatives, including CNA Insurance, Charles Schwab & Co. and MetLife.
And you couldn't ask for a better team at the helm. The technical acumen behind Logidex is the same team behind IBM's famous "SanFrancisco Project" and the enormously successful WebSphere series of solutions. This includes co-founder Brent Carlson, hailed as a "CTO to Watch" in 2004 by InfoWorld. Brent is a regular speaker at industry trade events, co-author of two popular software development books and holder of more than a dozen patents for his work. CEO Greg Coticchia has been selling and marketing software for more than twenty years at top companies like Legent, Symantec and Computer Associates - and was named a finalist for the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
So keep an eye on LogicLibrary. As a new era of interoperability dawns, Logidex is the most effective way to manage the software building blocks that will be the foundation for tomorrow's IT infrastructures.