What Software AG does

Software AG is a German enterprise software company headquartered in Darmstadt, founded in 1969, that provides database, application development, data integration, and mainframe optimization products for large enterprises operating mission-critical workloads on IBM Z and hybrid environments. Following the July 2024 divestiture of StreamSets and webMethods to IBM for €2.13 billion, the company's remaining portfolio centers on Adabas & Natural (a high-performance database and Natural application development platform processing over 1 million commands per second on mainframe, Linux, and cloud), CONNX (data virtualization and movement across 150+ database adapters, including Snowflake, Azure SQL, Kafka, PostgreSQL, and DB2), JOPAZ (COBOL-to-Java recompilation that offloads workloads to IBM zIIP specialty processors, reclaiming over 80% of general processor capacity), ARIS (business process analysis), Alfabet (enterprise architecture management, since 2025 merged with Bizzdesign and MEGA International into a ~€110M combined entity), Terracotta (in-memory data management), and Cumulocity IoT.

The company operates a hybrid go-to-market combining direct enterprise field sales with self-service evaluation through free trials, Adabas & Natural Community Edition downloads, and CONNX hands-on labs. Revenue is generated through software licenses and subscriptions (perpetual and recurring), professional services (implementation, consulting, managed services), and education and training. Pricing is quote-based with no publicly disclosed tiers. The installed base spans 10,000+ enterprises globally across regulated industries including government (DELJIS, Israeli Ministry of Transport), financial services (TASE, unnamed insurance leader), healthcare (AmeriBen), energy (Energy Transfer), automotive (Nissan Europe), and education (Università Cattolica). Geographically, the company maintains support infrastructure across EMEA, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East, with a wholly-owned subsidiary in South Africa. Sustainability credentials include consecutive EcoVadis Bronze Medals (top 35%, 64/100 points) and a CDP Climate Change C rating for FY2024.

Name

Software AG

Legal name

SAG Deutschland GmbH

Website

https://softwareag.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1969

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Software AG is a German enterprise software company that provides high-performance Adabas & Natural database, CONNX data virtualization, and JOPAZ mainframe optimization products to 10,000+ large enterprises running mission-critical workloads on IBM Z and hybrid cloud environments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mainframe Database & Application Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Multi-Model Databases (HDAEAAAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data Platform (Unified Data & Analytics) Suites (HDAEABAD), Database/Application Data Layer Modernization (DB migration, ORM, caching) (BPAEAFAL), Data App Builders (Forms, Portals & Internal Tools) (HDAEAKAK), iBPMS (Intelligent BPM Suites) & Process Automation Suites (HDAEAHAG)

Keywords

• Enterprise database software
• Mainframe application platform
• Data virtualization
• COBOL workload optimization
• Legacy modernization

Headquarters

HQ city

Darmstadt

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses and Subscriptions: Enterprise software licensing model for Adabas & Natural, CONNX, and JOPAZ products, offered on perpetual license or subscription basis with support and maintenance agreements.
2. Professional Services: Implementation, consulting, upgrade services, and managed services for application management, database management, and DevOps adoption.
3. Education and Training: Training programs, certifications, and learning paths for Adabas & Natural through self-paced courses, instructor-led training, and customized learning plans.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Software AG sells enterprise-grade database management, application development, data integration, and mainframe optimization software to organizations running mission-critical applications. Its core products are Adabas & Natural (high-performance mainframe database and development platform), CONNX (data virtualization and movement across 150+ data sources), and JOPAZ (COBOL workload redistribution to IBM zIIP specialty processors), supported by implementation, upgrade, and managed services plus education and certification programs.

Product overview

Software AG offers a platform-plus-modules architecture comprising enterprise integration, database management, process analysis, and IoT solutions. The core product portfolio includes Adabas & Natural (high-performance database and application development), CONNX (data virtualization with 150+ database adapters), ARIS (business process analysis), Alfabet (enterprise architecture management), Terracotta (in-memory data management), and Cumulocity IoT (device and data management for connected things). These products serve enterprise customers seeking to modernize mainframe assets, enable hybrid cloud data strategies, and drive digital transformation across distributed architectures.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Adabas & Natural: Enterprise application platform for building and deploying high-performance applications on IBM Z, Linux or cloud
• CONNX
• JOPAZ

Products and services

• Adabas & Natural

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% performance gains achieved through mainframe modernization
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• IBMformer core partner (acquisition)Technology or Integration · 1 January 2025IBM acquired Software AG's StreamSets and webMethods integration platforms in July 2024 for €2.13 billion. This acquisition strengthened IBM's data integration and hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure capabilities. Software AG retained its Adabas & Natural, CONNX, and JOPAZ product lines.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Rocket Software: Rocket Software is the closest direct competitor to Software AG in the IBM Z ecosystem, providing modernization, DevOps, and connectivity tooling for mainframe environments including Adabas/Natural-adjacent offerings.
• Informatica: Informatica is a leading enterprise data integration and virtualization platform that competes with CONNX in hybrid data access, movement, and metadata-driven integration use cases.
• Celonis: Celonis is the dominant process-mining and process-intelligence vendor, competing directly with ARIS in process discovery, mining, and automation for large enterprises.

Broad incumbents

• IBM: IBM owns the IBM Z platform that Software AG's products target and acquired StreamSets and webMethods in 2024; it is both a critical technology partner and a broader enterprise-software incumbent competing for mainframe and integration wallet share.
• Broadcom (CA Technologies): Broadcom's mainframe software portfolio (acquired from CA Technologies) overlaps with Software AG in DB2 tools, workload automation, and mainframe DevOps, making it a broad incumbent competing for the same IBM Z budget pool.
• BMC Software: BMC provides mainframe and enterprise systems management solutions (including Compuware tooling) that overlap with Software AG's mainframe modernization and DevOps capabilities for IBM Z customers.
• Oracle: Oracle Database, Exadata, and Oracle's own mainframe-to-cloud modernization programs compete with Adabas on transaction-processing workloads and with CONNX on enterprise data integration.
• OpenText (Micro Focus): OpenText, following its Micro Focus acquisition, sells COBOL and mainframe modernization tooling that directly competes with Software AG's Natural development environment and JOPAZ optimization offering.

Emerging players

• Snowflake: Snowflake is an integration partner via CONNX but increasingly a competitive destination for mainframe data, offering cloud-native analytics and data-sharing that pulls workloads away from on-prem data fabrics.
• Databricks: Databricks' lakehouse platform competes with CONNX-enabled data movement architectures for AI/ML workloads, offering an alternative destination for enterprise mainframe data.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SoftwareAG
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/SOFTWAREAG
• Facebookfacebook.com/SoftwareAG
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/software-ag
• GitHubgithub.com/Softwareag

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A24 records

Investments5 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Software AG