IBM Corp has formed the SNA-capable Intranet Alliance, a forum that has the intention of standardizing ways of connecting Systems Network Architecture networks to Internet Protocol networks. IBM, Cisco Systems Inc, Electronic Data Systems Corp, and OpenConnect Systems Inc are all members. IBM reckons that 70% of large companies’ critical applications and data is only accessible through SNA networks, and is looking for standardized methods of data transfer, database management, or database access across networks. The alliance will concentrate on developing browser and applet-based Java applications capable of working with hardware-based web-SNA gateways manufactured by both Cisco and IBM.
