Vendor Offers Help for Last-Minute Hang-ups
Even with systems Y2K-remediated and ready to run, everything can't be tested, and many AS/400 managers may still lose sleep over the possibility of undetected Y2K glitches. To help them rest easier, ValiDate/400, LLC (Ellijay, Ga.), is marketing a follow-up inspection tool for data already put back into production. Recently, the vendor added remote PC-based monitoring capabilities, enabling users to track the flow of data being validated on the AS/400 from a remote Windows PC.
"With all of the software upgrades, conversion and testing people have endured to become Y2K-ready, no one can really be sure they will not have date-related data errors when the new century actually arrives," says Andy Dukes, partner at ValiDate/400. "No matter how people have become Y2K compliant, what matters is if the data being used in production processing meets the purposes of end users reliably, day after day."
The latest release of ValiDate/400 (2.2) is configured to run with IBM's Client Access, and enables users to simultaneously monitor multiple AS/400s from a single PC-based monitoring station. The tool's Y2K "data meter" displays running statistics about the number of record updates detected, date-field updates validated, and date-field errors detected. "This tool monitors data quality for Y2K compliance in the production environment," Dukes explains. "Users will be able to track how much work ValiDate/400 is doing, even if errors are not being detected frequently."
Additional features included with ValiDate/400 include support for program-described files, as well as users' existing journals -- useful for shops that choose the journaling approach for validation.