Linoma Offers PGP Studio with Data Transfer Tool

by Alex Woodie

Linoma Software is shipping a new release of its secure data transfer tool for OS/400 and Windows systems. With Transfer Anywhere Version 1.5, Linoma is now including a free copy of the Windows-based studio it built to maintain the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption keys (which would normally cost $495 per seat), among other new capabilities.

Transfer Anywhere is a versatile Java program that can do the job of several point products, including distributing, retrieving, converting, compressing, encrypting, and signing data and files. It lets users pull specific data sets out of their DB2/400, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server 2000, and Informix databases, and do lots of things to them, like moving them to the other databases, converting them to Excel spreadsheets, or making them into HTML, XML, or text files.

With Version 1.5, Linoma has added several new capabilities, including better file logging capabilities, the capability to archive files after distribution, and new encryption capabilities.

The new capability to archive files after distribution can help users to automate certain tasks. For example, a transfer can be defined to automatically retrieve records from a database, create an Excel document from those records, encrypt and compress the document, and then e-mail it to one or more recipients, the company says. The new file logging capabilities in Transfer Anywhere can track the names of files sent, time stamps, and success/failure messages.

Transfer Anywhere Version 1.5 also includes a free license to PGP Studio, a Windows-based PGP key management product that Linoma developed for the product. The PGP Studio simplifies the use of PGP technology by helping to manage the importing, generating, and exporting of encryption keys and key rings (stores).

Keys generated by PGP Studio can be implemented into Transfer Anywhere for automating the encryption and decryption of documents, Linoma says. It also allows customers to perform on-demand encryption, signing, verification, and decryption of PC documents. When deployed in a supply chain, PGP Studio, running on a Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop, can use the product to verify and decrypt files that are sent to them, even if they weren't sent with Transfer Anywhere.

While the product's main data transfer engine installs only on OS/400 or Windows servers, any Windows, Linux, or Macintosh client on the network can be the source or destination of data transfers with this software. Users can kick off data transfers interactively from the Java GUI or command line interfaces (DOS or 5250), or data transfers can be embedded in the batch processes of RPG, COBOL, or Java applications, using Control Language, procedure calls, scheduling software, or Java APIs. There's also a new .BAT command in Version 1.5, so transfers can also be initiated from Windows PCs and servers, Linoma says.

In other Linoma news, the company recently moved its headquarters from Omaha to Ashland, in Nebraska. Ashland is located midway between Omaha and Lincoln, where some of Linoma's employees live.

Transfer Anywhere Version 1.5 is available now. Pricing starts at $3,995. For more information or trial downloads, go to www.linomasoftware.com.