News Briefs and Product Shorts

• BOSaNOVA continued its effort to offer desktop alternatives to Microsoft products with the release of Jadvantage 5.0 at the recent COMMON conference in Indianapolis. Jadvantage is the 5250 terminal emulation software that was originally developed in 1999 by Better On-Line Solutions, now marketed in the United States through the Better On-Line Solutions subsidiary BOScom and sold by BOSaNOVA, an independent distributor of BOScom products. Because Jadvantage runs on the server (either Windows NT/2000/XP or OS/400) and delivers emulation sessions to users through a Web browser, desktop maintenance and configuration requirements are kept to a minimum. With Jadvantage 5.0, users can now connect to OS/400 hosts from Linux and Macintosh computers running the Netscape Web browser, in addition to Windows PCs running Microsoft Internet Explorer. The new Linux, Mac, and Netscape capabilities were achieved by porting Jadvantage to Sun Microsystems' Java 2 runtime environment, says Martin Pladgeman, BOSaNOVA president. Other improvements offered in Jadvantage 5.0 include enhanced picture viewing, which allows server-based graphic files to be superimposed on the display session in a new window; customizable fonts for green0screen displays running on Windows clients; mapping of left and right control keys; and improved overall performance. Jadvantage 5.0 marks the second announcement that BOSaNOVA has made recently that is centered on offering OS/400 additional alternatives to running Windows on the desktop. Earlier this year BOSaNOVA announced that it would expand into thin clients, and the company officially unveiled its new line of Linux-based thin client terminals at COMMON (see "iSeries Terminal Business Alive and Well").

• Lakeview Technology expects to start shipping MIMIX dr1, a new disaster recovery product for OS/400 servers, during the second quarter this year, company officials said at the recent COMMON conference in Indianapolis. MIMIX dr1 is a midrange disaster recovery tool that Lakeview officials hope will resonate with OS/400 shops where a full-blown replication or clustering high availability solution is overkill, but a standard tape-based backup solution doesn't provide enough protection. MIMIX dr1 continually replicates changes made to data and objects to an offsite OS/400 server, where the changes are saved to disk. At times when activity on the OS/400 server and the network are at a minimum, MIMIX dr1 will perform a synchronization that results in a known recovery point. Lakeview officials say MIMIX dr1 is an ideal solution shops looking to establish one of these known recovery points about every four hours, which Lakeview refers to as a four-hour "recovery point objective." A properly configured high availability solution that uses clustering will have a recovery point objective close to zero; whereas nightly tape backups will have a 24-hour recovery point objective. Lakeview first announced MIMIX dr1 at the fall COMMON conference in Denver.
• Russell Corp., the $1.2 billion manufacturer of sportswear, has committed to using screen rejuvenation and integration software from Jacada, including Jacada Integrator and Jacada Interface Server, to connect its legacy systems to each other and to the Web. Russell, which, like Jacada, is headquartered in Atlanta, uses a wide mix of platforms to run its business software, including AS/400s, mainframes, and Unix and Windows servers. One of the key new initiatives that drove Russell to Jacada was a need to Web-enable its order entry application to improve user access and to make it more user-friendly. In the future, as Russell continues its strategy of growth through acquisitions, the company will use Jacada's integration technology to connect its IT systems to the systems of the companies it acquires.
• IPNet Solutions recently launched a new release of BizManager, its suite of electronic data interchange (EDI) software. With BizManager 2.4, IPNet Solutions has added several features that it claims makes it easier to set up EDI connections, including new test wizards that quickly verify AS1/AS2 transport settings, and enhanced quick-start wizards that walk users through the process of licensing and setting up trading partner profiles. BizManager also includes new rules to process non-standard EDI documents, new statistical reports, detailed analysis for transport planning and scheduling purposes, and direct access to IPNet Solutions' online customer support assets. BizManager supports a variety of data types, including XML, EDI, TXT, ASCII, and binary data, as well as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, e-mail, and SMTP transport methods. BizManager 2.4 for Windows is available now. Officials with the Newport Beach, California, company say the OS/400 version of the software, BizManager400, will be available in the second quarter.
• NetIQ, which last year acquired PentaSafe Security Technologies, has announced VigilEnt Password Manager 2.0, the latest release of its password management software for Windows, Linux, and Unix platforms, as well as OS/400. VigilEnt Password Manager uses native login IDs and controls to synchronize passwords across applications on a variety of platforms, allowing users to access all of their applications with a single, universal password. With version 2.0, NetIQ has added new installation features, enhanced support for Windows, and included other administrative improvements. NetIQ says Password Manager works well with VigilEnt User Manager 1.0, a relatively new product that automates the creation, modification, and deletion of accounts, user IDs, passwords, and access privileges across multiple platforms.
• GMx Solutions has responded to the recently reported vulnerabilities in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security protocol by bolstering the security framework of CM_SAFE, its configuration file management utility for use in Linux and Unix operating environments. GMx Solutions introduced a version of CM_SAFE last summer that deploys to iSeries Linux, providing an automated way of saving a company's iSeries Linux configuration files so that, if a disaster occurrs and the host is lost, CM_SAFE could be used to help restore the host's configuration settings to a known working state (see "Tech Insight: Managing Configuration Files in a Linux or Unix Partition" for a story by CM_SAFE's chief architect on the importance of configuration file management). With CM_SAFE 1.6, the Tampa, Florida, software company has bolstered the product's security framework. "Because the recent reports of Open SSL vulnerabilities, we have included major enhancements to our communications security layer," says GMx Solutions' chief information officer, Samuel Howard. No details of the new security framework were announced. With a renewed focus on security, the company also touted CM_SAFE's role as a passive intrusion detection tool. With its capability to monitor specific files and file types and report changes, CM_SAFE could provide early warning that a hacker has entered the system. CM_SAFE runs on GMx Solutions' VAPServer appliance and includes a variety of client components that install on several strains of Unix and Linux running on Intel, IBM PowerPC, Sun Microsystems SPARC, and Hewlett-Packard PA RISC processor architectures.

Sponsored By EZRAD.COM

Wireless PalmOS Access to DB2/400 Unlike traditional mobile-to-legacy access solutions, PalmView/400 from ezRAD.com, Inc. provides organizations with a practical solution for real time access to DB2/400 data. PalmView/400 allows PDA users to access DB2/400 data in real time via a wireless TCP/IP connection. Once PalmView/400 is installed on an enterprise server, the administrator simply needs to indicate which data should be made accessible to users, which is a simple matter of specifying the files or queries needed. No complex synchronization servers or duplicate databases are needed-your users have access to the standard, live DB2/400 data. To access that data, clients use simplified menu screens (whose design is similar to that of the screens on the built-in Palm OS address book) to select which data on the iSeries they would like to view. Users are comfortable because it's easy to access familiar data, and administrators are comfortable because the entire process is secured through strong, 128-bit encryption and standard iSeries security designs. By overcoming the traditional problems associated with real time access to DB2/400 data, ezRAD.com's PalmView/400 makes it possible for the first time for organizations to easily build mobile applications that use enterprise DB2/400 data. The potential uses are endless. Banks could use it to enable loan officers to have wireless mobile access to loan status or account information. Field-support organizations could use mobile AS/400 access to enable field-support personnel to access account information, product information, or service histories prior to a support call. Hospitals could use it to enable healthcare providers to access patient or prescription records, or to search for medications to prescribe. Sales representatives could use PalmView/400 to have a live data connection back to corporate sales systems, so they can access detailed information when one of their customers places an order, wherever they may be. Manufacturing companies could use it within their factories or shipping areas to enable electronic order-picking through the use of real-time inventory information stored on their iSeries or in applications such as JD Edwards, SAP, JBA, or other enterprise applications. Even though it's easy to use and administer, it's still a robust enterprise application. Designed to support just a few users or thousands, PalmView/400 has the scalability and security of an IBM OS/400 application built in. Go to http://www.ezrad.com/palmview.pdf to see our white paper on how to create a "Real Time Enterprise."