Executive White Paper > Solix Technologies, Inc.
Solix ExAPPS Brings New Relief
to Application Retirement Anxiety
The benefits of shutting down aging or unused applications are easy to see but as anyone knows who
has ever been asked to turn such an application off – you hate to be the one responsible for pushing the
button only to have someone request the application data later on. The Solix ExAPPS takes these
concerns about application retirement off the table.
Company
Solix Technologies, Inc.
4701 Patrick Henry Dr., Bldg 20,
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Founded 2002
www.solix.com
Industry
Data Storage
Challenges
• Maintaining and managing the
infrastructures needed to support
legacy applications
• Resourcing the technical expertise
to manage the application
retirement process either in-house
or with professional consultation
• Quantifying which underlying
application data needs to be
retained
• Accessing the retired data if
needed or requested
• Making Application Retirement
a repeatable process
Solution
Solix ExAPPS
Benefits
• Automates application retirement
while preserving application
data integrity
• Data can not be modified
and remains safe to meet
compliance requirements.
• Automated repeatable process
eliminates the manual, ad hoc
nature of past application
retirement attempts
• Compressed legacy data reduces
operating efficiencies
By DCIG Analyst James Koopmann
People may come and go but applications live out-dated software versions, the available amount
forever. Well, not exactly, but that mindset leads to of expertise within an organization or marketplace
the application retirement problems that many continually diminishes. This increases the risk of
organizations face today. Often applications remain losing all expertise associated with an application;
intact and running on corporate networks long after running applications that are unsupported or require
their useful life is over but gracefully shutting them high-maintenance; and, having data in-house with
down is no simple matter. However the recently no one being able to access or interpret data in a
released Solix ExAPPS appliance provides organiza- knowledgeable fashion.
tions a new option for retiring these applications
while alleviating the uncertainty normally associ- Retiring Applications:
ated with such decisions.
Understanding and
Mitigating Risk
Retirement Planning: Who, What, While the cost benefits of retiring applications may
Where, When and Why be clear, the risks associated with application retire-
Application functionality, architecture, or business ment can be vague. Consider:
rules often change over time that can render an • Organizations lack expertise in the application
application obsolete that leaves an organization’s retirement process. This results in an inability to
application portfolio less than optimized. In a zero in on which applications should be retired
research paper, Plan Legacy Application Retirements
Carefully1, Jim Duggan, a Research VP with Gartner, • Organizations cannot quantify which underly-
makes the following observation, “On average, 10% ing application data needs to be retained. This
of the applications in an un-optimized portfolio are creates apprehension and risk when considered
candidates for retirement. An additional one-third against the backdrop of compliance require-
can require migration or rationalization.” ments and different federal and state regulations.
In an era of economic down-
turn, where companies want “Solix ExAPPS compresses legacy data by up to 90% and a
to squeeze costs and do more single Solix ExAPPS Appliance can replace multiple physical
with less, all sizes of compa- servers, applications and storage in the data center thereby
nies, from SMBs to large significantly reducing operating budgets and increasing
corporations, are recognizing operational efficiencies.”
the value of application retire- —James Koopman, DCIG Analyst
ment. This is done as much to
reduce costs and simplify the IT infrastructure as it
• Budgets are already tight. Obtaining funding for
is done to eliminate the need to migrate or virtual-
additional resources can be difficult, especially
ize seldom or minimally used applications.
when those resources are high-paid consultants
Considering that many enterprise organizations have and the applications scheduled for retirement
numerous applications spread across many server often are already included as line items in the
platforms with numerous database servers on the organization’s budget.
backend, the value of decommissioning these appli-
But probably the biggest question that organiza-
cation servers quickly becomes evident. However
tions face when deciding to retire an application is,
application retirements go beyond just the hardware
“What will happen to the data?” The data may be
and software costs. Maintaining and managing the
needed for compliance and legal reasons but who
infrastructures needed to support legacy applica-
else uses or accesses the data? Sometimes there
tions takes expertise, often specialists.
are no records as to when the last time the data
Aggravating the situation, as an organization contin- was accessed, who accessed it and for what
ues to run old applications on legacy hardware or purpose. Further, no one wants to say they were
February 2010
Executive White Paper > Solix Technologies, Inc.

the one who deleted the data only to find out later appliance that can be plugged directly into the
that it is needed by executive management. corporate network for the single purpose of applica- About DCIG
tion retirement. DCIG analyzes software, hardware
Satisfying the Requirements of and services companies within the
Application Retirement Organizations only need to use a Web browser to
storage and ESI industries. DCIG
point the Solix ExAPPS at an identified target appli-
Therefore before any solution is introduced that distributes industry, company and
cation’s data using a Web browser. Once it sees the
facilitates application retirement, it must satisfy the product analysis by way of viral
application, ExAPPS begins the process of migrat-
following criteria: marketing and community building
ing all of the application’s data, including its objects,
• The application context of legacy data must reports, and the context of how the application using the burgeoning BLOG
be preserved. Not only must objects, columns, data is used and referenced, to the Solix ExAPPS infrastructures created worldwide.
and attributes be preserved but an understand- secured repository in an immutable form. This
ing of how an application’s logic interprets codes process guarantees data can not be modified and
About Solix
and the relationships between data so the remains safe to meet compliance requirements. Technologies, Inc.
application data still makes sense should it need Solix Technologies, Inc., a leading
Since this is a fully automated process, it is repeat-
to be retrieved and referenced in the future. provider of Enterprise Data
able and eliminates the manual, ad hoc nature of
• Data is stored in an accessible format. Management solutions, helps
past application retirement attempts that relied
Regardless of data format for an application, businesses to improve application
heavily upon consultants, system integrators and performance, reduce storage costs,
data must be stored in a compatible format. If a third parties utilities and migra tion tools. meet compliance and data privacy
legacy application uses a backend database that
Once an application is retired and the data moved requirements by achieving Information
contains binary large objects (BLOBs) then the Lifecycle Management (ILM) goals and
storage repository for retired applications should over to the Solix ExAPPS appliance, business users
Data Governance strategies. Solix
be able to accommodate and efficiently store or IT can query the ExAPPS appliance and report on
Enterprise Data Management Suite
these types of objects as well. the legacy data using standard enterprise reporting
(Solix EDMS) software enables
tools. While the data is stored in a proprietary data- organizations to implement Database
• Store all legacy data stored in a single base (the Solix Secure Archive), it is accessed using Archiving, Test Data Management
location. This makes it simpler and more a standard SQL engine so standard database query (Data Subsetting), Data Masking and
efficient to find and retrieve later on should the methods will work. Application Retirement across all
requirement emerge. enterprise data. Solix ExAPPS
Depending on how the Solix ExAPPS is utilized,
• All legacy applications should be considered Appliance is an integrated set of
organizations may even see further savings. Solix
to have unique data reporting requirements. Server, Storage and Software
ExAPPS compresses legacy data by up to 90% and Components for Application Retirement
These requirements should be fully supported
a single Solix ExAPPS Appliance can replace multi- all bundled into a single device. In
by any BI tools that are put in place after the
ple physical servers, applications and storage in the partnership with leading application
application retirement.
data center thereby significantly reducing operating and storage vendors, Solix provides
• An open or standard access method should budgets and increasing operational efficiencies. integrated information lifecycle
be used. While it is difficult to predict data management (ILM) and Data
The benefits of shutting down aging or unused
access methods in the future, storing data in Governance solutions for today’s
applications are easy to see but as anyone knows heterogeneous environments. Solix has
formats that are considered open today increase
who has ever been asked to turn such an applica- an extensive global client base,
the likelihood that the data can be retrieved at
tion off—you hate to be the one responsible for including Fortune 500 companies, and
some point in the future.
pushing the “off” button only to have someone is widely considered the standard for
Retire Apps with Confidence: request the application data later on. The Solix enterprise data management. Solix
Solix ExAPPS ExAPPS takes these concerns about application Technologies is headquartered in Santa
retirement off the table. Using the Solix ExAPPS Clara, California and has an
It is these issues that the new Solix ExAPPS
appliance, organization can quickly and easily established worldwide channel
addresses. Recognizing this new corporate need for program of value added resellers
a solution that automates application retirement deploy a solution that enables them to achieve their
(VARs) and systems integrators.
while preserving application data integrity, Solix goal of cost-effective application retirement.
ExAPPS is a pre-built, pre-configured, and pre-tested

1
Gartner Report: Plan Legacy Application Retirement Carefully by Jim Duggan, April 24, 2009.

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February 2010