IBM has chosen its Warwick, UK data centre as its second international value-added network applications development and processing centre in Europe. The Midlands site, which is promoted alongside Zoetemeer in the Netherlands, will be responsible for applications involving Information Exchange, IBM’s trade data interchange service; Screenmail, IBM’s electronic mail service; and the Professional Office System-based Office Support Services. Zoetemeer will continue to develop Hostlink viewdata services and CICS and Applications Service. The decision to upgrade Warwick to an international, rather than just a national, centre will lead to a further 100 jobs at the site, according to IBM UK, and is part of a major expansion of IBM’s network offerings. In addition to detailing prices of its service, a condition of the Office of Telecommunications VADS licence for which it has applied, IBM has announced network support for layers four and five of the Open Systems Interconnection model – it previously supported only layers one to three – an interface for applications written to OSI layer five, support for leased X25 lines, and future support for X400 messaging and FTAM.
