Spurred by such estimates, companies have been beefing up their computing capabilities to gain their share of the growing business opportunities. "Over 5 million computers are permanently attached to the Internet, compared with only 200 in 1983," says Vinton G. Cerf, senior vice president of MCI's Data Services Division and president of the Internet Society. Moreover, he estimates, there are at least another 5 million computers -- portable and desktop systems -- that are intermittently online.
Companies have also been busy, over the past decade, shifting to new information technologies (IT) to increase their competitiveness. They've purchased and installed applications and network equipment -- running under a range of protocols -- that provide the connectivity their PCs need. By 1991, the Department of Commerce reports, more was spent on IT and computing than on any other capital category in the U.S.
Now comes the challenging part: effectively managing all that technology. Management of overhead consumes almost 50 percent of the total cost of PC ownership, according to one industry survey. An army of desktop administrators -- one for every 50 users in a large company -- is required to oversee configurations, control software, and troubleshoot breakdowns. Another challenge involves critical business data that is now stored on PCs dispersed throughout an organization. This situation can create difficulties -- big time -- when companies extend their reach into the global network.
Coping With Diversity
How can IT departments cope with the challenges? One way is with an emerging and powerful approach called network-centric computing in which intelligence is located in the computers and in the network. When networks using different protocols are smart enough to talk to each other, users are free to choose any application they need, and network managers can easily keep parallel networks in sync.
IBM is adding intelligence to networks through its Enterprise Communications Servers family. These servers are multifunction gateways that run on all key platforms from desktop to mainframe, including AIX, OS/2, OS/400, OS/390, and NetWare. Clients supported include AIX, OS/2, DOS, Windows, Windows NT, HP, SUN, DEC, Mac, and NetWare.
The servers surmount the limitations of distributed technologies that are typically bound to a single communications protocol and prohibit independent selection of applications and communications protocols. In such situations, users must run only those applications that operate with the protocol installed on the network, or the network must support a range of applications by carrying multiple protocols.
But when the number of installed protocols increases, managing the network becomes more costly and complex. For one reason, under heavy traffic loads, each protocol has a different procedure for handling congestion situations. What is also becoming more difficult is the challenge of prioritizing traffic fairly to meet end-user needs.
IBM's servers, with their High Performance Routing (HPR) feature, give networks the flexibility of TCP/IP and provide the reliability and class-of-service typically associated with SNA. HPR, using advanced techniques such as deterministic routing, automatically chooses the optimal traffic path based on class-of-service. And when a network failure occurs -- it's no problem. HPR automatically routes traffic around the failure, without disrupting the application or end user. And for good measure, HPR controls congestion by regulating data flow -- preventing data loss and maximizing data link use by keeping data throughput just below the congestion level.
IBM's Communications Servers utilize AnyNet technology, which is based on Multiprotocol Transport Networking (MPTN), an open industry standard. With AnyNet, networks can easily be merged and new applications added without affecting existing users, requiring new hardware, or modifying existing applications. So in the Communications Servers, AnyNet enables SNA applications to run natively over TCP/IP and Sockets applications to run natively over SNA.
There are other benefits, too. The Communications Servers' gateway capability connects two or more networks running different protocols, allowing applications in one network to communicate with matching applications in another. TCP/IP Sockets applications -- such as FTP, SAP R/3, SNMP, Telnet, and WebExplorer -- can run over connected TCP/IP and SNA networks. And SNA applications -- such as DB2, DDCS, CICS, DCAF, emulator, and printer programs -- can run over SNA and TCP/IP networks.
Enterprise Communications Servers: A Family of Values |
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The Enterprise Communications Servers, a family of products, can
help network administrators to leverage investments in existing
applications and to easily add new applications like Internet
access and support for mobile and multimedia requirements. The
Communications Servers are multifunction gateways that run on
all key platforms, from desktop to mainframe. And they provide
seamless integration of current and new business applications
on either SNA or TCP/IP networks.
Communications Server for OS/2 Warp (CS/2) integrates several key technologies to provide multifunction gateway support on an OS/2 platform. CS/2 provides full APPN capability, including High Performance Routing (HPR) and integration of AnyNet Access Node and Gateway functions to support the integration of SNA and TCP/IP applications and networks. Access features are available for OS/2 and Windows to extend APPN and AnyNet capability to LAN clients.
Functions that extend the gateway capability include:
Enhanced APPN capabilities include:
Communications Server for AIX (CS/AIX) is a powerful multipurpose gateway for SNA, TCP/IP, and IPX clients. Integration of AnyNet access node function provides Sockets over SNA and SNA over IP capability. CS/AIX has the most advanced APPN support on UNIX platforms and will add HPR later this year. Key CS/AIX features include: -- Fault resilience with automatic switch over, hot standby, load balancing, and backup host capability -- Unlimited scalability through SMP hardware, which offers 3.3 times the performance improvement of uniprocessors -- Channel attachment for high-speed access between host and AIX applications, including ESCON channel support -- TN3270 offload capability, which saves mainframe cycles and allows the mainframe to be optimized for other applications Communications Server for OS/390 (CS/390), which allows access to the System/390 server, is not constrained by type of application, network, or platform. CS/390 includes TCP/IP in the base and APPN capability, including HPR and DLUR/S, and AnyNet support. Application programming interfaces for SNA, TCP/IP, and DCE are included. As with the other servers, full integration of AnyNet provides not only support for both SNA and Sockets applications regardless of the underlying protocol, but also gateway services to join two or more unlike networks. CS/390's central directory server function serves as an enterprisewide directory that conducts searches and directory caching on behalf of Network Nodes. Other key functions include hot backup, as well as session and conversation-level security. NetWare for SAA fills out IBM's suite of SNA gateway solutions and is a powerful and reliable networking solution for connecting NetWare networks with IBM host systems. NetWare for SAA provides users with easy, transparent access to S/390 and AS/400 applications without adding to the complexity of the network, supporting almost any host connection including LAN, WAN, and channel attachments. PCOM 4.1 Family includes the Personal Communications products that are IBM's premier application development and terminal emulation offerings for OS/2, DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95 environments. |
Forbidding But Fruitful
The jargon may seem forbidding. But the important thing is that Communications Servers get the job done efficiently, as IBM customers in the United States and other countries have discovered.
For example, take Pacific Bell, a telecommunications company that delivers telephone service through 14,645,000 access lines in California and Nevada. It depends upon its information network to consolidate vital operations and financial data. It needs the ability to transparently send SNA applications over a TCP/IP backbone. To control hardware, line, and network management costs, Pacific Bell standardized on a single protocol: TCP/IP.
AnyNet technology has become a key component of the company's network infrastructure. Charles Hights, senior systems analyst, explains why:
"Throughout California, Pacific Bell has a very large SNA network, which we've been trying to slowly migrate toward TCP/IP.
"The billing organization is very large. They were writing lots of applications and wanted something that could fit in with their existing network, which was mostly an SNA-based controller.
"When they heard we were converting to TCP/IP, they became very upset. They had all these applications that were running over SNA, and they didn't want to rewrite them to run on TCP/IP. So that's really where IBM's solution came in.
"We were able to show them that we could use this product from IBM, and it would basically do all the translations. They would just write their programs the way they normally were, and let AnyNet transport it across the network.
"They didn't believe it at first, but once we set it up and had some live samples, they were really impressed. Now we have 14 servers and over 100 users accessing APPC applications over the TCP/IP backbone."
The alternative to the IBM solution was to find one that was native to TCP/IP. But Pacific Bell wasn't able to find such an application that supported the range of services they offer.
Since the initial implementation, Pacific Bell has added two projects that use IBM's solution. One project makes it possible for DB2/6000 to communicate with DB2 running on Pacific Bell's MVS mainframe over the TCP/IP network. The other allows X:Change to communicate with an X:Change server running on the mainframe. X:Change, a file synchronization program, keeps files synchronous between PCs and mainframes.
For Pacific Bell, the main objectives of such an implementation were performance and flexibility for users. According to Hights, "The performance was more than acceptable. We couldn't detect any difference between the standalone network that they were using and AnyNet in the middle sending data across TCP/IP.
"We were able to put this up, and they didn't even know that AnyNet was running. So, the transparency was more important than anything. They didn't want to have to go through a lot of changes to make their applications work. Since they didn't have to, they were very happy."
The Flip Side Solution
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Bank Al-Jazira discovered it needed the flip side of the Pacific Bell solution. Rather than running SNA over a TCP/IP backbone, the bank wanted to maintain its SNA backbone while providing multiprotocol flexibility to users. The bank has an SNA backbone network with LAN protocols running at 12 of its branches. The branches' PS/2s are connected to the main location by a 19.2 kilobyte X.25 network. Originally, the bank considered a router-based solution. But it decided to go with the IBM solution.
George Sarkis, data and communications manager, explains why: "Our critical business application, the Bank Cashier Consumer System, was SNA. "Our cashier application comes from the branches through LANDP on the LAN and over the WAN to the AS/400. The bandwidth availability in Saudi is low. Data link switching is very wild and has a lot of overhead. SNA, we believe, delivers better bandwidth utilization than data link switching over IP routers. It also handles prioritization very efficiently. The router solutions used to have the advantage of delivering multiprotocol services. Although we needed SNA, we wanted to keep our options open for other protocols. IBM's solution provided that capability. Our first implementation used the Sockets over SNA gateway, which allowed us to remotely manage resources using SNMP over our SNA network.
"From a services viewpoint, our SNA network is fully internetted. We can use TCP/IP applications and still use the class-of-service SNA provides to prioritize our WAN traffic. This solution has given us a very stable network. Since we installed it, we've not had one instance of down time."
The bank manages its networks using NetView/6000 running on a RISC System/ 6000 at the main branch. Sarkis's group set up a Distributed Console Access Facility (DCAF) at the main branch, so they could remotely control workstations at other branches. They also configured TCP/IP on their AS/400 and used TN5250 from TCP/IP on OS/2 to connect the PCs back to their AS/400. This setup allows the main branch LAN administrator to log on to remote LAN server domains and to administer remote domains using DCAF to take over the remote server and NetBIOS over TCP/IP to log on remotely.
Last year, the developer of the cashier system, KAPITI, announced it would switch to a Windows NT platform. Because of the open protocol support of the IBM solution, the bank will be able to move to the new versions without disrupting its network.
How does the IBM solution position the bank for the future? Sarkis says, "We can enjoy all the benefits of a single SNA APPN backbone and feel secure that we can accommodate major protocols, such as TCP/IP, NetBIOS, and IPX, if we need them."
It's All About the Future
Positioning companies for the future is what the Enterprise Communications Server family is all about. It can help companies extend their reach by providing Internet access without the use of TCP/IP or routers. This may sound like heresy to traditional Net surfers. But for companies with non-TCP/IP networks, it can help slash costs.
With the Sockets over SNA gateway feature, which connects SNA and TCP/IP networks, users on SNA workstations with the Communication Server for OS/2 access feature can access the World-Wide Web using Sockets applications such as WebExplorer, while staying connected to their SNA network. And Web surfers outside the company can access a Web server in the SNA network.
AnyNet and VTAM developers at IBM in Raleigh, NC, have been using this feature for their Web access. From a user's perspective, this access method is no different from the traditional TCP/IP approach, according to Mark Pozefsky, AnyNet product manager at IBM.
"Using an SNA backbone already in place and AnyNet Sockets over SNA function in Communications Server for OS/2, businesses can connect to the World-Wide Web, or use servers and browsers on an intra-company Web, without modifying installed hardware and using off-the-shelf applications. Multiple applications can run simultaneously with priority given to the interactive jobs."
"Technology is simply changing too fast for current IT infrastructure to be based on narrow networking standards," observes Bill Duncan, worldwide brand manager of IBM's Networking Communications Software. "Companies can best position themselves for the future with an open networking model, one flexible enough to meet the needs of both internal users and external customers.
"Companies that embrace this approach -- which is the basis for the Enterprise Communications Servers family -- are well prepared to succeed in today's highly competitive marketplace."