Host Integration Server 2004 Available

A new version of Host Integration Server (HIS), Microsoft’s middleware product for linking Windows applications to mainframes and AS/400 systems, helps developers expose some types of host applications as Web services, and can also make Windows applications appear as mainframe applications, allowing organizations to offload some processing onto Windows-based servers. However, many of the most compelling new features are available only on a new, more costly Enterprise Edition.

Legacy Applications Live On

A strong argument can be made that Windows servers can offer business applications mainframe-class levels of reliability, availability, scalability, performance, and access to massive databases, at lower cost and with faster development time. Nonetheless, the fact remains that very few mainframes are being retired. Even applications written more than a decade ago for IBM’s mid-range AS/400 systems live on, with replacement by modern Intel-based servers happening infrequently. In fact, IBM has a healthy business selling newer models of System 390 mainframes (now called zSeries) and the AS/400 (now called iSeries).