Montreal, Canada-headquartered Eicon Technology Inc has delivered the first product in its InterConnect Server range, ICS for NetWare. According to the company, the offering is designed to simplify the integration of branch offices into enterprise networks by combining router, gateway and network management technology into a single product. It is implemented as a series of NetWare Loadable Modules in a NetWare server. From the routing angle, ICS for NetWare routes Novell Inc’s IPX/SPX, TCP/IP and AppleTalk local area network protocols. Eicon says that it also interoperates with backbone routers from Cisco Systems Inc and Wellfleet Communications Inc using point-to-point protocol, Frame Relay or X25. In addition to its router function, the product gives communications to IBM Corp and ASCII hosts, claims Eicon. Support for SNA protocols such as 3270, 5250 and APPC is incorporated, as well as non-SNA emulations like Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and Tandem Computers Inc. Local area network-attached personal computers and workstations running MS-DOS, Windows and OS/2 are also supported. On the network management side, the product features integrated SNMP-based network management tools. The company says that it can be configured and controlled from a Windows-based console, operated either locally or from a central headquarters. The offering is also claimed to be compatible with IBM’s NetView, enabling data processing departments to control networks of InterConnect Servers remotely via RUNCMD support from IBM’s host-based management system. ICS can also be managed from third-party SNMP consoles such as Novell Inc NMS, NetView 6000 and HP OpenView. ICS for NetWare is available now, at from UKP3,000. Future releases will add support for IBM OS/2, Windows NT and Unix servers, says Eicon. Additional functions being added in the future are said to include local area network routing over SNA, routing of SNA traffic across TCP/IP backbones, PU concentration and SDLC-to-LLC2 conversion. Eicon has been named the world’s number one SNA gateway supplier by International Data Corp in a review of the IBM mainframe and midrange desktop environment. IDC found that Eicon had a 30% world share of installed gateways, twice as high as Novell and its NetWare for SAA offering.
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