IBM Mothballs Older Versions of Host Integration Server

Published: September 14, 2009

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If you are one of the many shops using a relatively old release of IBM's Host Integration Server to modernize your 5250 or 3270 green screens and give them zippy Web screens, then you had better get ready to upgrade to a new version or start looking at alternative products.

Last week, in announcement letter 909-222, IBM said that WebSphere Host Integration Server 3.0 and 3.1 for iSeries or for multiple platforms, HIS Intranet Version 4.0 and 4.1 for iSeries or Multiplatforms, and Version 5.0 of HIS for System i or multiplatforms would all see their technical support withdrawn on September 30, 2010. IBM also said the extension of technical support, which is a conditional provision of its software licensing agreements (meaning IBM gets to decide if it will offer it), would not be available. Sorry.

You can, of course, use the Rational Host Integration Solution for Multiplatforms/System z Version 7.5 to modernize 5250 and 3270 green screens. You can find out about this in IBM's product catalog here. And there are, as readers of The Four Hundred know well, a flurry of third-party tools that provide similar application modernization capabilities.

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