Anaheim, Calif. - IBM's long and sometimes laborious effort to bring the mainframe fully into the TCP/IP world will take a big step today with a new release of the mainframe's OS/390 operating system.
At the Share Technical Conference here, IBM is expected to roll out OS/390 Version 2.5 software that includes a faster IP stack, improved IP support for IBM's parallel sysplex-based mainframes and new Internet security features. IBM declined to comment on the announcement.
The software enhancements are part of IBM's ongoing effort to make mainframes intranet- and Internet-friendly, with new impetus coming from customer interest in Web-based commerce.
OS/390 integrates more than 30 software products that were previously sold separately, in-cluding MVS and communications programs such as VTAM and TCP/IP for MVS. OS/390 also includes the mainframe's Unix-based operating system, OpenEdition/MVS, and object-oriented database tools.
The key in the announcement will be improved IP performance. In this release, IBM has rewritten the TCP/IP for MVS stack to run more efficiently. IBM has promised three- to sixfold improvements with each rewritten stack in the past. Because upward of 50% of IBM mainframes will be running TCP/IP by year-end, it is imperative that it performs well, analysts said.
Also in the performance realm, OS/390 2.5 will let Unix applications run faster on the mainframe by more closely tying the IP stack and OpenEdition. Today, users must traverse MVS, OpenEdition and the TCP/IP stack to access Unix applications on the mainframe.
Reportedly, Version 2.5 will eliminate the need to go through MVS, thereby improving application performance, sources said.
IBM has about 1,200 developers committed to building Unix applications for the mainframe.
The new OS/390 release will also improve availability of IP-based parallel sysplex mainframes. Parallel sysplex straps together multiple mainframes in a cluster.
Sources said IBM is planning to support failover in IP-based parallel sysplex environments, so that if one machine in a cluster crashes, another can pick up its duties.
The OS/390 fail-over safeguards data transfers, said David Floyer, an analyst with International Data Corp., a Framingham, Mass.-based research company. Previously, the only failover possible was from processor to processor within a single machine, he said.
The next biggest improvement to the OS/390 package is the integration and enhancements of its Internet security package.
The company is bundling a firewall, digital certificates and its Cryptographic Coprocessor inside OS/390. In the past,users had to buy these packages separately.
IBM also is enhancing the OS/390 Secure Server IBM with Data Encryption Standard (DES) Version 3, a high-end authentication and encryption product.
The advantage of OS/390 2.5 is that the security features reside on one box. Users don't need to attach any special Web servers or other devices to the S/390 mainframe, Floyer said. "All the components for authentication and security are on the server," he said.
One user believes this one-stop-shopping style of security could save him a lot of trouble.
Robin Mauldin, director of the data center for Ikon Office Solutions, based in Macon, Ga., said he recently sent a piece of data from his S/390 out over the World Wide Web and had to go through a lot of hoops in securing it. The data had to be sent to a local LAN, encrypted and then finally sent.
OS/390 2.5 should be available next month.
