Host Integration Server Updated for .NET, BizTalk

Host Integration Server (HIS) 2006 enables developers to tie together Windows and IBM mainframe and midrange components with the improved tools of Visual Studio 2005. Released Nov. 2006, HIS 2006 also enables organizations to hook hosts into integration “hubs” built on two other Microsoft products, BizTalk Server and Identity Integration Server, simplifying integration solutions that involve many disparate systems.

Mainframe and Midrange Integration Still Matters

HIS provides gateway services between Windows applications and applications and data on IBM zSeries and iSeries (AS/400) hosts. It implements IBM’s SNA network technologies for host communications, supports integration of user credentials between Windows Active Directory and host authentication systems such as RACF, and enables Windows applications to integrate with host software at several levels. (See the illustration “Levels of Host Integration“.) Partners including Attachmate, eXc Software, Farabi Technology, NetManage, and Proginet add capabilities such as host-to-Windows password change synchronization and “screen scraping,” extracting data from the terminal user interface (UI) of a host application to enable processing with Windows business logic.