With NCR Corp taking its Top End transaction processing monitor off to the Internet, IBM Corp wants everyone to know that it too is Java-enabling its CICS transaction software. It has rewritten the C-based CICS’s external call interface in Java, claiming it will enable users to access CICS servers through CICS-enabled Java applets over TPC/IP, bypassing dedicated Internet servers. With performance issues being solved through Java just-in-time compilers, IBM’s Hursley, UK lab is currently sorting through security options. Demonstration clients are up on IBM’s Web site, beta versions are due later this year. Meantime, IBM’s Transarc Corp has re-written its cut-down Distributed Computing Environment client, DE-Lite, in Java – it has a back-end strategy in hand, but won’t tell.
