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IBM Repositions Client Access with iSeries Access Rebranding
by Joe Hertvik
With OS/400 V5R2, IBM's Client Access group continues its migration from a Windows-only product line toward a broader set of tools that allow iSeries users to access their servers from a variety of devices. This migration, which has been occurring for at least two years, will bring the group's various programs under a new brand name--the V5R2 iSeries Access Family--that may provide a marketing boost and does away with the idea of the client being centric when it comes to access software.
With so many of its products focusing on server and three-tier architectures, IBM felt it was time to remove the word client from this product line. To that end, here's how IBM is renaming its iSeries Access family of products, along with a list the features each product contains and the niche each product is intended to fill:
iSeries Access Family (formerly the iSeries Client Access Family). This is a bundle of OS/400 servers and related products for accessing and presenting OS/400 data. Purchased under user-based or processor-based licensing, the family contains several software packages, including iSeries Access for Windows (with all the functionality of V5R1 Client Access Express for Windows), iSeries Access for Web, WebSphere Host Publisher 4.0, iSeries Navigator (the follow-on to Operations Navigator), and the new iSeries Access for Wireless package.
iSeries Access for Windows (formerly AS/400 Client Access Express for Windows). This is the latest version of the famed Swiss Army knife of access products. This software is targeted for the fat-client Windows marketplace, and it contains all the familiar Client Access features, including 5250 emulation, data transfer, and Windows-based ODBC drivers. Like its predecessors, iSeries Access for Windows is a partially licensed product; where a licensed is required only if you're using the iSeries Access' Data Transfer functions or the PC5250 emulator. For all other features, the software can be distributed freely. IBM will support the new software when connecting to OS/400 V4R5 systems and above.
iSeries Navigator (formerly Operations Navigator). Operations Navigator was designated as the graphical face of OS/400, and iSeries Navigator picks up where Operations Navigator leaves off. The iSeries Navigator is a no-charge feature for graphical user access to jobs, message queues, and printers. It also supports custom-written program plug-ins and contains some heavy-duty system administration graphical interfaces for managing DASD and data, creating files, applying PTFs across systems, and managing LPARs, and has a host of other features. In addition, IBM's Management Central function is tightly integrated with iSeries Navigator to allow a central iSeries or AS/400 to perform various tasks on several subordinate machines.
iSeries Access for Web (no name change with V5R2). This is intended for shops looking to provide casual OS/400 access. It provides server-side software for accessing a browser-based view of iSeries V4R5 and V5R1 resources and information. Since March, IBM has been testing a new beta version of this software that provides new printer features, improved batch command facilities, upgraded OS/400 IFS support, the ability to e-mail results of tasks to different users, and compatibility with WebSphere Application Server 4.0. If you want a sneak preview of the new version of iSeries Access for Web, check out IBM's Client Access Web site. An upgraded second beta of the new version is tentatively scheduled for release in June or July, right before V5R2 comes out. This second beta is slated to have a few other new features added to it.
WebSphere Host Publisher 4.0 (no name change with V5R2). This is licensed with the iSeries Access Family (5722-XW1) product. The Host Publisher's role is to extend and merge different OS/400 5250 applications for consumption by Web browsers and WebSphere users. OS/400 V5R2 will upgrade 5722-XW1's WebSphere Host Publisher software to 4.0, which is the same version that is currently available for the AIX, Windows NT/2000, and Solaris platforms. (The OS/400 V5R1 products contain WebSphere Host Publisher 3.5.)
iSeries Access for Wireless (a new product). The iSeries Access for Wireless is IBM's set of functions and middleware routines that provide access to iSeries resources and information from wireless devices, such as Internet-enabled phones and PDAs. Delivered as a no-cost product, iSeries Access for Wireless contains IBM's Management Central-Pervasive software, for managing OS/400 functions through a wireless interface; the new iSeries Toolbox for Java, Micro Edition, for delivering device-based Java applications that access iSeries resources through wireless Java classes; and a JDBC, Micro Edition, driver, for accessing the iSeries from a PDA or other handheld device. All new wireless-based software in the product line will be delivered as part of iSeries Access for Wireless.
iSeries ODBC Driver for Linux (no name change). Released as a beta in January, and made generally available at the end of March, the Linux ODBC driver allows you to access iSeries data from a Linux client. Although it will continue to be available only as a Web download, the driver is now considered part of the iSeries Access product line.
And lest you think this rebranding extends only to the old Client Access family and its related products, IBM tells me that it has also renamed its Client Access group. In keeping with the product branding, the new name of the group is the iSeries Access group.
To longtime users, this rebranding isn't anything new. The iSeries Access moniker is actually the software's fourth name change since it debuted as PC Support/400 in the early 1990s. PC Support/400 was eventually renamed and updated to Client Access for Windows 95/NT in 1995 (to reflect its compatibility with the then-new Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems), and the software was again renamed and updated to Client Access Express for Windows in 1999 (to create a lighter-weight product that only ran over TCP/IP connections, dumping the accumulated weight of the product's SNA support in the process). So no one should be surprised by this latest rebranding; it's just a natural by-product of IBM's continuing effort to connect more than Windows clients to an AS/400.
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Editor
Timothy Prickett Morgan
Managing Editor
Shannon Pastore
Contributing Editors:
Dan Burger
Joe Hertvik
Kevin Vandever
Shannon O'Donnell
Victor Rozek
Hesh Wiener
Alex Woodie
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