Microsoft Integration Server on Deck

Microsoft is ready to ship Host Integration Server 2004, offering a Windows interface to mainframes and legacy applications.

HIS 2004, the latest in
the company’s line of server tools, is a set of technologies and tools that let companies working on
the Windows Server 2003 platform connect Windows with IBM zSeries mainframes
and iSeries servers. It provides integration in five areas, according to Charles
Machalani, senior product manager in Microsoft’s Business Process and
Integration Division: applications, data, messaging, security and network
services.

“Customers deploy these applications in obvious ways, such as
heterogeneous environments where they want to bring existing assets into the
Windows Server environment,” he said. “But [they’re also used] for such things as ATMs,
where they want to take advantage of the Windows platform on the front end
to get access in a cost-efficient and manageable way to resources existing
in a mainframe.”

HIS 2004 options include a Transaction Integrator that lets host-distributed
applications participate in .NET and COM+ transactions; a Transaction Integrator (TI)
Runtime Server; MSMQ-to-MQSeries Bridge for asynchronous, messaging-based, communication
integration between heterogeneous applications; an SNA and TN3270 Server
gateway with an IP-DLC link service that connects Systems Network
Architecture (SNA) applications across an IP network; and Visual Studio .NET
and diagnostics tools.

Tom Casey, product unit manager for Microsoft’s Business Process and
Integration Division, said the product could help companies do more with
less.

“Business decision-makers or project sponsors are asking their
employees to solve problems in the most cost-efficient manner,” he said.
“Being able to manage a heterogeneous computing environment in a consistent
manner is important.”

At the same time, corporate developers building new applications must
also use existing resources when possible, Casey said, and HIS 2004 lets
them call legacy applications using the Visual Studio interface.

HIS 2004 provides integration of applications and networks, according to
Machalani. “For the most part, AS400s have moved to IP. On the mainframe, a
lot of applications still require SNA as way to communicate with these
systems,” he said. The IP DLC link service lets a company invoke SNA systems
and applications over the IP infrastructure.

Once a company has bridged legacy and Windows systems via HIS 2004, Casey
said, the legacy data and applications are available for use with
Microsoft’s collaboration tools, such as BizTalk Server. “I can integrate
with the entire Windows Server System stack,” he said.

The product also lets Windows developers work with legacy apps via the
Visual Studio design tools.

“If I’m a Visual Studio developer, the mainframe
world may be foreign to me,” Casey said. “HIS 2004 allows developers to
normalize the interfaces they work with via a wizard-based environment and
the Visual Studio shell.”

Support for Microsoft’s .NET framework allows developers to expose
functions of legacy mainframe applications as Web services within a
service-oriented architecture. HIS 2004 also reverses the process, allowing
mainframe applications to call applications on the Windows platform.

Casey said Microsoft has around 10,000 integration customers, some of
whom might use HIS 2004 as a stopgap during the long migration to a full
Windows infrastructure.

Microsoft offers two editions of Host Integration Server 2004. The Standard
Edition costs $2,499 and includes core host access services in the form of
network, data and security integration technologies. Host Integration
Server 2004 Enterprise Edition will cost $9,999, adding application
integration capabilities in TI and the message
integration. Microsoft plans to ship both versions on September 1.

Microsoft announced the imminent release of the server product at the
SHARE user conference, held Tuesday in New York City. The company said it’s
a significant enhancement to its 10-year-old integration initiative. The
release, said Casey, “reflects our mainframe integration customers’ input
and renews our commitment to the space.”

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