① Software AG · Audit defense
Adabas and Natural estates run on agreements written decades ago, amended many times, and remembered by almost nobody. When a Software AG audit notice references capacity growth against that history, the vendor is counting on the memory gap. We close it, starting within 48 hours.
Old paper, current capacity, sharpened revenue focus.
Software AG mainframe licensing is typically capacity bound: license files carry the MSU capacity the contract covers, and the estate's actual capacity is measured against it. Decades of hardware upgrades, sysplex changes, and quiet growth mean many Adabas and Natural estates run ahead of the paper without anyone deciding to. That gap is what an audit monetizes.
The corporate context matters too. Since 2023 Software AG has been majority owned by Silver Lake, and in 2024 the webMethods and StreamSets businesses, including EntireX, moved to IBM, leaving Adabas and Natural operating as a standalone business. Portfolio transitions of this kind are typically followed by a sharpened commercial focus on the installed base, and legacy estates with ambiguous entitlements are where that focus lands first. Mixed estates should verify which publisher now stands behind each product; our EntireX licensing page covers one common case.
For estates weighing migration, the audit and the modernization business case are the same conversation: the numbers are laid out in our guide to Natural and Adabas license exit math.
One point of contact, all auditor communication through it, nothing volunteered. The notice gets acknowledged without conceding scope or timeline, and no vendor measurement tooling runs until the contractual basis is mapped.
First response sets the frame.
The original agreement, every amendment, every capacity true up, every license file, assembled into one defensible chain. In estates this old, the reconstruction itself commonly dissolves a meaningful share of the claimed gap.
The archaeology is the defense.
Claimed capacity gets recomputed independently: which machines, which LPARs, which MSU figures, measured how, against which license files. Interpretations the contract language does not support are challenged in writing, with the language quoted back.
Their numbers, reworked on your data.
The credible alternative gets built in parallel: modernization paths, migration economics, and the term options the vendor would rather not discuss. An auditor negotiating against a buyer with a costed exit plan behaves differently. That is the point.
Exit math at the table, even if you stay.
The settlement closes the exposure, prices any true capacity gap at negotiated rather than claimed rates, and preserves exit rights, portability, and term flexibility. A settlement that locks you in for five years is the vendor winning twice.
Closure now, options intact.
③ What changes with us in the room
The vendor knows your contract history better than you do. Until we arrive.
Mobilization on audit notice
Engagements delivered since 2019
Mainframe spend negotiated on the buyer side
Old contracts, current capacity. Licenses are typically MSU capacity bound, estates have upgraded hardware for decades, and the institutional memory of what was agreed has retired. Findings grow in exactly that gap, which is why entitlement reconstruction is the first move.
It can. webMethods and StreamSets, including EntireX, moved to IBM in 2024, while Adabas and Natural stayed with Software AG as a standalone business. Mixed estates should verify which publisher stands behind each product and under which paper, because divested portfolios commonly create the ambiguity audits feed on.
Acknowledge without conceding scope, route everything through one channel, and reconstruct your entitlement position before responding substantively. No vendor tooling, no data handover, until each request is mapped to the clause that authorizes it. We mobilize within 48 hours.
Make it a day one objective. Settlements commonly arrive packaged with multi year renewals that freeze the estate. Preserve exit rights, portability, and term flexibility in the settlement, and bring the exit math to the table even if you intend to stay.
Related: Software AG licensing hub · audit defense service · IBM audit defense · case studies
Audit notice or renewal under 18 months out? We mobilize within 48 hours.
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