What runs where, and how does it relate to the business?
By Jennifer deJong SD Times Software Development
October 15, 2007 — Mega International on Sept. 26 updated its enterprise architecture offering, adding reports that identify software components, applications and servers according to the business functions they carry out.
Instead of simply drafting a technical diagram that shows which applications are running on which servers, the new release of Mega Modeling Suite uses terminology that is meaningful to line-of-business professionals, said company vice president of solutions Terence Lee. For instance, a server with the applications and components that run on it might be identified by the term “travel management,” indicating an application that lets customers plan trips, booking flights, hotels and rental cars.
Mega Modeling Suite, which starts at US$3,250 per user, is an enterprise architecture tool for diagramming components, applications, business processes and IT infrastructure. It supports the Unified Modeling Language, but Lee explained that it’s intended for use as a mapping tool, not a development tool, so it does not generate code.
Instead, he noted, “it [creates] designs and hands them off to software developers.” To ease that task, Mega Modeling integrates with IBM WebSphere offerings, and with Microsoft Visual Studio. A future version will also support developers who use the Eclipse framework, he said.
Also new to the Modeling Suite is support for Web Services Description Language, allowing SOA architects to more easily model software components that adhere to the specification that lets a Web service interact with other Web services. Integration with Software AG CentraSite lets architects query the Web services registry and use those services in their diagrams, said Lee.
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