Host Integration Server 2000 Released to Manufacturing

Host Integration Server (HIS) 2000 is an upgrade of SNA Server 4.0 and joins Microsoft’s new 2000-series server lineup. Although the product contains only modest improvements over its predecessor, its new name reflects a change in focus: Microsoft is de-emphasizing the product’s function as a System Network Architecture (SNA) gateway and is instead focusing on HIS’s role as middleware, integrating Windows DNA server-based applications with legacy host applications and databases.

Organizations are rapidly redesigning their systems to meet the needs of a new generation of Web and e-commerce applications. For large, established firms, this normally requires linking data and legacy applications running on IBM mainframes and AS/400s with these new server-based applications. HIS 2000 provides key services needed to link applications running on Windows 2000 Server, Internet Information Server (IIS), Commerce Server, BizTalk Server, or AppCenter with those legacy back-end systems. Without HIS 2000 and future upgrades that bring HIS in line with its .NET initiative, Microsoft risks losing much of its server business with mainframe-dependent customers to competitors, especially IBM, that are focusing on platform independent Java-based solutions.