The next release of IBM’s OS/400, release 3.2, ships on June 21, and will include the company’s Internet Connection software for turning the AS/400 into a Web server. It includes an HTML-to-5250 gateway to convert character- based terminal applications into HTML format. It is also integrating the Lotus Notes groupware software with OS/400, and has added security features against hackers and viruses. The new version supports the Secure Electronic Transaction standard as well as the SSL 3.0 protocol for encrypted communications, and message integrity, and has added additional firewalling, according to Glenn van Benschoten, AS/400’s director of systems product management. It’s all fully compatible with the forthcoming so-called AS/400 thin clients, as the AS/400 client model slims down. The company will market the idea of buying another AS/400 just as an Internet server, as the security aspects of the next release will mean that the server is screwed down so tight, as van Benschoten put it, that the legitimate internal users might get a bit frustrated at their lack of access to data. It will run the latest versions of SystemView, FlowMark, AddStor, the DB2 Multisystem data warehousing tool and it will also support 32-bit Windows95 and Mac clients.
