Host Integration Server 2004 Beta

Host Integration Server (HIS), Microsoft’s middleware product for linking Windows applications to mainframes and AS/400 systems, will get a new release in 2004. Now in beta, the product is meant to make it easier for developers to link applications built on the .NET Framework with existing mainframe applications and databases. This in turn could help Microsoft expand the .NET Framework’s foothold in the data center. HIS 2004 also provides more features for exposing host applications as Web services, an emerging cross-platform application integration technology that is being promoted by Microsoft and many other vendors.

This release is critical because its predecessor, HIS 2000, used COM to integrate legacy applications, and COM has been superseded by the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework has become Microsoft’s primary development platform and competes directly with the Java 2 Extended Edition (J2EE) environment promoted by most of Microsoft’s competitors, especially BEA, IBM, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems.