Netscape Communications Corp and Information Builders Inc have announced a partnership to bring IBI’s data access middleware and reporting tools to Netscape’s Enterprise server platform, enabling native access to data held on mainframes through a web browser. New York City-based IBI has developed EDA S/390 Data Server for Netscape, which includes the Netscape server and enabled users to create JavaScript applets for mainframe data access, and includes MVS and non-MVS drivers. Previously Netscape supported access from Oracle, Sybase and Informix databases, and this effectively adds IBM mainframe-hosted data to that list. The other product IBI has developed is a version of its WebFocus reporting tool for S/390 that enables reports to be deployed by the server to web browsers. Out now, the ED S/390 Data Server for Netscape starts at $18,375 and the WebFocus S/390 for Netscape at $12,475. Both are available from either company.
