Balans, the distributed batch queuing and network load balancing software from VXM Technologies Inc, location in Massachusetts unknown, now supports the new SunSoft Open Network Computing distributed naming service NIS+, announced last week at InterOp. VXM delayed shipping Balans until NIS+ was ready. According to VXM president Franco Vitaliano, who described his company as an erstwhile NCS bigot, NIS+ coupled with the Netwise Remote Procedure Call beat the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment Location Broker hands down thanks to features such as security and access rights, greater scalability to very large networks and hierarchical directories. VXM’s turnaround was so complete Vitaliano said, our developers now refuse to go back to using Network Computing System. NIS+ will be embedded as an integral part of the Balans distribution binaries. Users of other network naming services can co-exist, making Balans-IDS one of the first interoperable distributed network applications available. Balans/NIS+ will be initially available under Sun Microsystems Inc’s Solaris 1.0 late in the first quarter of next year, costing under $400 a node on medium-sized networks, the company said, with Ultrix and HP-UX versions planned to follow. Balans-IDS will be sold primarily through resellers and systems integrators. Nissho Electronics Corp may pick up an exclusive option to market it in Japan.
