Version 14 of Hardis Group's multi-technology development platform is designed to drive agile transformation and modernization, and help open up access to legacy information systems and business applications running on IBM i (AS/400) environments.

Hardis Group, a consulting firm, digital services company and independent software vendor, has unveiled version 14 of Adelia Studio, its multi-technology development platform designed to accelerate the transformation of legacy information systems, open up access to IBM i (AS/400) applications, and assist with gradual decommissioning of obsolete applications when migrating to new technology platforms. One of the key features of the latest version is its new Event Driven Architecture (EDA) design, which helps derive value from IBM i legacy applications by exposing them, in real time, to other applications, and by enabling the development framework to be coupled with continuous integrated DevOps tools plus any new print engines.

From REST service exposure to real-time data exposure

With its new EDA design, Adelia Studio v14 is very much in keeping with the logical shift in service-oriented architecture (SOA), of which EDA is an extension. After the introduction of REST service exposure in version 13, the latest iteration now allows data from legacy business applications to be exposed in publish-subscribe mode. This means that other applications (BI, Big Data, machine learning, and more) can subscribe to data from legacy information systems—and use that data—in real time. "The benefits of this new version are three-fold. It reduces time-to-market for new AS/400-based digital services, does away with the monolithic design of RPG applications, and heralds a more flexible, open information system in general", says Christian Senet, Technical Director at Hardis Group.

Adelia Studio v14 uses the Apache Kafka platform, which can handle extremely high data flow rates, to publish data from IBM i systems. The subscription mode, using the MQTT and AMQP protocols, will be available in the coming weeks.

Continuous development and integration

As part of its drive to modernize and unlock legacy information systems, Hardis Group has also transformed Adelia Studio, for v14, into a development framework compatible with the principle of continuous integration, and with multiple development environments (IBM i, Windows and Java). The new design means that agile development principles can be applied to IBM i environments, using the same DevOps tools found in any other environment. The latest version also supports iterative development of monolithic legacy applications, allowing developers to design and integrate smaller components (RIA, web, client/server graphics, or IBM i 5250) on the fly.

With its new architecture principles and working methods, Adelia Studio v14 is very much designed for the back-office, allowing legacy systems to retain control of data integrity and responsibility while paving the way for more modern middle- and front-office technologies.

Last but not least, the latest version of Adelia Studio comes with a brand-new print engine (Adelia Print Engine) that combines templating with data generation capabilities. The engine boosts printing performance and lets users generate PDFs in just a few hundred milliseconds. The engine comes in REST API format, and can also be deployed as a stand-alone solution in Kubernetes-style container or orchestrator format.

The new features apply across all Adelia Studio-compatible platforms—IBM i, Windows and Java.