Apps Ease Links to Host Systems

A trio of integration software vendors, WRQ Inc., Jacada Ltd. and Neon Systems Inc., are rolling out upgraded products designed to make it easier to tap into legacy host-based and green-screen applications.

WRQ this week will announce upgrades to its Reflection line of products, which connects host systems to Windows and Web applications. Reflection X Version 11.0 includes cross-product enhancements and new features, including integrated security, support for new protocols and Linux updates, faster performance, and an improved server interface, said company officials, in Seattle.

Integrated security protocols in Version 11.0 of Reflection X include an OpenSSH client to encrypt X Protocol, a Kerberos client for tighter authentication and secure FTP support. An enhanced server interface provides improved server and connection management, and new X Server Management panes are designed for multiple X displays, officials said.

Another WRQ update is Reflection for the Web 6.0, which aims to provide users with reliable host access without the fuss of desktop management. Version 6.0 provides a browser-based terminal emulation capability, which results in secure access to applications running on certain systems.

WRQ user Steven Waters, vice president of systems at Cannex Financial Exchanges Ltd., said he is happy about the security upgrades because they will help in an initiative to provide to Internet-based users secure access to his companys data.

"Rather than deploying a VPN, we use WRQs product; its offering native encryption, so you dont have to deploy a VPN," said Waters, in Toronto. "Thats a big timesaver for us. With 450 financial institutions on the system and about 1,500 agents that are users of the data, if we had to deploy the VPN, that [would be] pretty big."

Separately, Atlanta-based Jacada last week released Version 5 of its Terminal Emulator software, which includes a thin-client Java FTP component that makes host-based systems accessible to browser users. The addition of the Java thin client allows end users to transport files among mainframe, Hewlett-Packard Co.s iSeries, Unix and Windows platforms without using a fat-client FTP, officials said.

Also last week, Neon Systems, of Sugarland, Texas, introduced Shadow Event Publisher, which enables real-time publishing of information from mainframe-based applications to distributed systems. The application provides a single interface for capturing and publishing mainframe events.