Review: Metallect Aims To Rock IT Governance, SOAs

Metallect's IQ Server version 2.5, available now, uses a unique patented inference and application indexing engine to provide realtime insight for scoping and estimation of enterprise systems at every stage of application maintenance and development.

IQ Server's indexing engine automatically discovers all of the logic within supported programming languages and database schemas and creates a catalog of collected metadata, and its inference engine identifies application dependencies and conducts impact analysis related to modifying these applications and database schemas. Metallect's solution captures these dependencies within and across multiple applications.

IQ Server works independent of any application change-management techniques, application life-cycle approaches and software development life-cycle management methodologies. Since IT managers and developers spend most of their time maintaining and enhancing matured, critical business applications, whenever changes are requested by business managers, code changes often come with many unforeseen expenditures and risks because of poor visibility into external application interdependencies.

To close the gap between the time requests come in and solutions are deployed, IQ Server can scan multiple applications repeatedly, in a non-intrusive way, and generate online reports that provide key metrics on program interdependencies and point out specific instances where individual module logic is affected by external changes from other applications and databases. As code is developed, IQ Server also can spotlight breaks while new applications are created.

The IQ Server tool can make IT governance a reality rather than a buzzword. Today, SOA vendors haven't done much to address interdependency problems. That's why SOAs haven't been widely adopted. The delay isn't because of a flaw in SOAs but rather a lack of foresight by major SOA vendors to address the interdependency issue. Since SOA technology essentially is a framework for staging composite applications, it doesn't take into consideration the risks associated with new code and data structures used by cross-application bridging components between existing systems.

To achieve a complete, enterprisewide SOA practice, IT managers must maintain realtime visibility over hundreds of tightly connected applications. IQ Server can give companies such visibility by reporting on changes made to business services across all of its supported programming technologies. In addition, IQ Server can help identify duplicative logic by providing specific impact-analysis reports.

Within the next few months, Plano, Texas-based Metallect plans to launch a channel program, which will be providing hosted IQ Servers to partners to help them demonstrate the server's capabilities to customers, as well as allow them to create pilots. That approach creates immediate visibility into customers' applications without the hassles of staging presentations by installing and configuring software at customer sites.

Metallect makes IQ Server's interfaces public through an accessible API, allowing solution providers to build custom solutions atop its inference engine. For instance, solution providers that want to integrate IQ Server with a bug tracking tool can do so by writing a parser using simple JavaServer pages. Solution providers also can create new services by extending IQ Server's reporting capabilities.

Plans also call for Metallect to open-source all of the interfaces into IQ Server and create an online marketplace that allows solution providers to offer their capabilities in an open-source model. What's more, the company will be providing an online download market of widgets that have been created by solution providers to sell to all IQ Server customers. Solution providers, too, will be able to charge for languages not covered by Metallect.

IQ Server supports 16 languages, including middleware languages such as SeeBeyond's Monk and Corba IDL. The server supports eight major databases and a couple of code documentation tools. BPEL isn't currently supported.

MARIO MOREJON is a technical editor for the CRN Test Center.