Attachmate Delivers iPad Emulator for 5250

October 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

Attachmate last month announced the availability of a new terminal emulator for iPad that will allow road warriors and other field workers to access 5250 and 3270 applications from afar. The new client sports an HTML5 screen and support for encrypted connections, which is a requirement in today’s corporate environment.

The scramble to deliver mobile interfaces to existing business applications has been going on for several years. But for whatever reason, the iPad seems to be especially favored by business application developers, including those writing software for the IBM i server.

The delivery of version 1.0.1 of the Verastream Terminal Client puts Attachmate firmly in the club of IBM i software vendors who have gone mobile. The Seattle, Washington, company announced earlier this year as part of its MobileNow push that it would deliver an iPad client later in the year, and it followed through on that promise on September 15.

Verastream Terminal Client is optimized for the iPad, including support for the touch screen. The software includes a drop-down keyboard with customized key layouts. It also includes “hotspots,” or buttons that appear over screen labels, allowing users to execute a corresponding host function or Web service.

The screenshots of Attachmate’s new iPad emulator as they sit on the iTunes app store. All your hipster friends will gawk at that totally retro green-on-black screen.

The client supports traditional 5250 green-screen interfaces, and also gives administrators the option to customize the client for a different user experience, according to Attachmate. Administrators get full control over who can access the client, whether encryption is to be used, and a full log of activity information. Admins can also create custom forms and automate procedures that are tailored to device-specific needs, the company says.

“Whether BYOD or provisioned, tablets and especially the iPad, have become part of the end-user computing landscape for enterprises,” said Tom Bice, vice president of marketing and product strategy at Attachmate, in a press release. “But delivering mainframe and midrange applications to edge devices has been a challenge. Our new iPad app provides a solution enabling mobile workers to quickly connect to critical business information and maintain their competitive advantage.”

The software is available now in English, Spanish, German, and, of course, Northern Sami, the oft-spoke language of the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Users must have Verastream Integrator installed to run the new iPad client. For more info, see the product page at the iTunes store.