IBM upgrading Web-to-host products

LAS VEGAS - IBM is rolling out new products and upgrades designed to make life simpler for IT staffers connecting Web-based users to legacy applications.

The company's SecureWay software division is expected to announce this week at the Solutions '99 developers conference a new product called Screen Customizer, which can present legacy data from multiple hosts in one customizable view.

IBM will also announce Host On-Demand 4.0, as well as Host Publisher 2.0. Host On-Demand is IBM's Web-to-host Java terminal-emulation product. Host Publisher sits on a Web server and converts host data into an HTML format for presentation to the desktop.

IBM executives say Screen Customizer is the company's first homemade Web-to-host rejuvenator, a software tool that takes legacy data from a 3270 session, for example, and automatically puts on top of it an easy-to-use graphical user interface with automatic menu buttons and defined input fields.

Customizer sits on the Web server, and when a user logs on, it launches a Java applet that does the screen conversion for the desktop.

As the product requires no special coding, it simplifies matters for users and IS staff, IBM says. The product integrates with Host On-Demand 4.0 and IBM's Personal Communications 4.3 Web-to-host product.

Users can access multiple hosts and integrate their data on a single screen. Using Customizer, IT staff can change fonts and colors on the screen, as well as preset the software to automatically navigate users to appropriate Web pages, thus saving them time.

IBM also has spun its Host Publisher product off from Communications Server for NT, which allows Windows PC users in an IP net to access SNA data. Host Publisher can now run on a variety of Web hosting platforms, including OS/390, AIX and Sun Solaris Web servers.

With Host On-Demand 4.0, users will be able to log on to AS/400 servers and establish tn5250 sessions, instead of just receiving tn3270 data-streams. To ease administration, IBM now offers Lightweight Directory Access Protocol support to keep track of user privileges.

The added simplicity of the latest version of Host Publisher has one user looking to implement the product in his network immediately. "I haven't seen anything out there with this ease of use," says Doug Piner, Web site manager at the North Carolina State Treasury. Piner has been using the first version of the product in his network, which has 50 state agencies accessing data.

Host On-Demand 4.0 is available now for $199.

Screen Customizer is available in beta. Host Publisher 2.0 goes into beta this month. Pricing for the two products has not been determined yet.