Rocket Software, a developer of enterprise modernization and SOA integration products, announced support for IBM Rational Open Access: RPG Edition for the IBM i platform. Rational's RPG Edition decouples application business logic from the 5250 screen layer and enables RPG developers to create new, non-screen-based access to RPG application functions.

Rocket leverages this new functionality in LegaSuite Integration, the company's SOA integration development tool for IBM i and other critical business systems. The combination of LegaSuite and Open Access: RPG Edition enables RPG developers to turn traditional RPG applications into high-performance, strategic SOA services that can be used by any SOA-compliant application or platform.

"We have a significant installed base of customers who rely on the IBM i platform, so enhancing our LegaSuite products to support Open Access:RPG Edition is key to helping organizations offer new, high-performance SaaS and cloud capabilities while preserving their investment in the IBM i," says Sam Elias, business area executive Worldwide for Seagull products at Rocket Software. "IBM's Open Access: RPG Edition brings RPG into the future."

LegaSuite now provides a roadmap for making existing RPG functions accessible to SaaS and cloud environments by selectively SOA-enabling application functions. LegaSuite with Open Access: RPG Edition takes the buffer of information from the RPG program and hands it off to the LegaSuite Integration runtime environment - which can be deployed natively to the IBM i or to a variety of distributed platforms, including a virtualized or cloud infrastructure running Windows or Linux.

For more information, go here.