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Software AG: The XML - oops - SOA company

Software AG has built a global customer base over 35 years by being an early mover in a couple of major technology trends. The company introduced one of the first databases, Adabas, in the 1970s, a platform-independent computer language, Natural, in the 1980s and an XML (Extensible Markup Language) server, Tamino, in the 1990s.

In an interview with IDG News Service, Peter Kürpick, member of the Software AG executive board responsible for research and development, talked about the company's evolutionary move from XML servers and integration to new products and services needed to build an SOA (service oriented architecture) infrastructure.

IDGNS: How did Software AG enter the middleware market?

Kürpick: In the early 90s, our founder Peter Schnell realized a need to connect various systems so that information flows would not be confined to one system. He started a project, the message broker, which is known today as our enterprise service bus. This technology allows you to connect systems of different kinds to exchange information.

IDGNS: And then the Internet came along. What happened then?

Kürpick: In the mid-1990s when Internet gained momentum, Software AG detected a need for companies to standardize application tools. The standard was XML and became a core business. We tagged ourselves The XML Company. But that tag is going to disappear soon as XML is now pretty much a given in the industry; it's nothing special anymore.