Release Announcement April 2021 - Adabas & Natural

Eli_Cohen1 · April 14, 2021, 10:28am

Innovations keep coming for Adabas & Natural on our key platforms: IBM Z, Linux and cloud. With a focus on security in 2020-21, we are pleased to introduce 3 products: Adabas Encryption for z/OS, Adabas Auditing for z/OS and Adabas Encryption for Linux. In keeping with our Adabas & Natural 2050+ agenda, we continue to extend our offerings and focus on solutions that help you protect, modernize and optimize your high-performing Adabas & Natural applications.

Adabas & Natural on IBM Z

With Adabas Encryption for z/OS , you can now leverage IBM’s pervasive encryption technology to encrypt Adabas data at rest on IBM Z. With the rise of data attacks on government and financial institutions, legislation (i.e., FIPS) now requires organizations to implement higher levels of security. By leveraging the deep hardware level security provided by IBM pervasive encryption, your Adabas data can be protected from theft and comply with current and emerging security standards.

Adabas Auditing for z/OS gives you an additional web-based tool to help your organization stay fully compliant with ever-growing regulations by giving full visibility into your database activity to protect your valuable data from unauthorized access. With Adabas Auditing for z/OS, you can keep track of who is reading or changing specific data, when they did, from where, and which applications they used with filtering and root-cause analysis tools. The audit data is then stored safely in secure, indexed, long-term archives for ready access and accountability.

Additional highlights in this release of Adabas & Natural on IBM Z include another security feature with Multi-Factor-Authentication (MFA) with one-time password authentication support integrated into NaturalONE for Natural Development Server (NDV). You can now offload even more workload to zIIP with roll server support for Natural for Com-plete for zIIP.

Adabas & Natural on Linux and Cloud

Introduced earlier this year, Adabas Encryption for Linux can secure data at rest and data in flight by encrypting data in ASSO and DATA containers. Integration with key management is also provided. With this level of encryption, you can feel confident your data is secure especially if you are considering a move to the cloud.

Additional enhancements for Adabas & Natural on Linux include: support for long passwords or passphrases for Natural Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) and buffer pools are optimized to improve performance. In NaturalONE, debugging large data fields is now easier and DevOps unit testing can now be automated without Eclipse being a pre-requisite.

Adabas & Natural on Legacy UNIX Retirement

With many of our customers already departed from or soon planning to depart their Legacy-UNIX platforms due to cost and technical reasons, Software AG has decided Linux x86 will be its strategic open systems platform for Adabas & Natural. The end-of-maintenance date (EOM) for Software AG support of the Legacy-UNIX platforms HP-UX®, AIX® and Solaris® is December 31, 2024. Please read this notification for details on how we can support your transition .

If you have any questions regarding the Adabas & Natural platform roadmap, please do not hesitate to email Adabas & Natural Product Management at AskANProdMgt@softwareag.com.

Release Highlights

Adabas & Natural on IBM Z Release Highlights

Natural Mainframe*	NAT 8.2.8/9.12	Natural Development Server (NDV) MFA (Multi-factor authentication) support One-time password authentication support
Adabas on z/OS	ADA 8.5.3	See new product Adabas Encryption for z/OS See new product Adabas Auditing for z/OS
Adabas Encryption for z/OS	AEZ 8.5.2	Protects sensitive data stored in Adabas for z/OS Encrypts data at rest Leverages IBM Z high-speed pervasive encryption and key management technologies
Adabas Auditing for z/OS	ALA 2.1.1	Tracks all database operations (read and update) Filtering to concentrate on sensitive data Long-term archiving Audit Viewer for root cause analysis on current and historical audit data
NaturalONE	ONE 9.1.3	Debugging large data fields Unit testing integrated in DevOps toolchains without running Eclipse as a pre-requisite
Adabas Manager	AMN 8.6	Entire Net-work mainframe kernels with authentication Support Adabas Auditing for z/OS
Predict	PRD 8.5.1	Support new feature in DB2/V12 Predict Plug-In in ONE: DevOps - Support Adabas DB assets for continuous integration/deployment
Natural for zIIP	NCF 8.3.6	Natural for Com-plete for zIIP supports new roll server

*In this release, Natural for Mainframe includes features for BS2000 and z/VSE platforms.

Adabas & Natural on Linux and Cloud Release Highlights

Natural	NAT 9.1.3	Optimize buffer pool handling Long passwords / passphrases for Natural RPC
Adabas	ADA 7.0	Enhancements for Adabas Encryption for Linux - See new product Adabas Encryption for Linux
Adabas Encryption for Linux	AEL 7.0	Encryption of ASSO and DATA Containers Integrated key management
NaturalONE	ONE 9.1.3	Debugging large data fields Unit testing integrated in DevOps toolchains without running Eclipse as a pre-requisite
Adabas Manager	AMN 8.6	Entire Net-work mainframe kernels with authentication Support Adabas Auditing for z/OS
Predict	PRD 8.5.1	Support new feature in DB2/V12 Predict Plug-In in ONE: DevOps - Support Adabas DB assets for continuous integration/deployment

Entire System Management

Entire Systems Management increases automation of data center operations and reduce the costs of administration and operations. Entire Output Management is for automation and administration of output in an enterprise. Entire Operations is for automation of monitoring and control of all IT-supported production-processes for classical data-center operation. Entire System Server is the base technology for operating system access.

Entire System Management Release Highlights

Entire Operations	NOP 5.5.2	Support attachments for emails on BS2000 nodes - SYSOUT and other files Functionality extended logging – messages are now available on UNIX and Windows
Entire Output Management	NOM 3.5.2	File-name size enhanced in the Report Identification for UNIX/Windows Nodes Improved usability of Entire Output Management GUI client
Open Print Option	OPO 3.5.2	UNIX/Linux support

Adabas & Natural Legacy UNIX Retirement

We would like to inform you that, after a detailed analysis & assessment, Software AG has decided to adjust its strategy regarding the Legacy-UNIX platforms HP-UX®, AIX® and Solaris®.

With many of our customers already departed from or soon planning to depart their Legacy-UNIX platforms due to cost and technical reasons, Software AG has decided Linux x86 will be its strategic open systems platform for Adabas & Natural 2050+ going forward. This will allow Software AG to focus more resources on this platform and maximize the overall value to our customer base.

The end-of-maintenance date (EOM) for Software AG support of the Legacy-UNIX platforms

is December 31, 2024. For the period from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2025 Software AG will offer options for non-standard sustained support on the Legacy-UNIX platforms for customers who are unable to rehost by the regular EOM date. Both dates apply to all Software AG Adabas & Natural products (excluding CONNX, which will still be available for Legacy-UNIX).

This will provide you more than five (5) years to rehost your Software AG applications from the legacy-UNIX platform to your preferred Linux x86 platform(s). Software AG recommends one of the following platforms:

• RedHat Enterprise Linux®

• SUSE Linux Enterprise

• CentOS

Please be assured that Software AG is prepared to offer assistance in planning and executing your rehosting from the Legacy-UNIX platform to an alternative platform.

Following the principles of our “Adabas & Natural 2050+ Initiative”, your rehosting project will be a high priority to Software AG. Our local Software AG teams will be happy to discuss any rehosting topic with you.