Unibol, Oracle Unite to Facilitate AS/400 to NT Migration
In order to provide AS/400 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with a more streamlined approach to selling existing AS/400 software applications into the market for enterprise-class solutions running Oracle and Windows NT solutions, Unibol Inc. and Oracle Corp. have formed a strategic partnership, according to published reports.
The partnership between Unibol (Marietta, Ga.) and Oracle (Redwood Shores, Calif.) is expected to provide AS/400 ISVs with a partner support program, called the EnableNT Partner Program. EnableNT Partner, which was devised to assist ISVs as they rehost their applications on Windows NT servers with Oracle, is scheduled for general availability by the end of March, 1999.
Unibol's Unibol400 product will server as the core of the rehosting process, reports say. The product mirrors the capabilities of AS/400 under Windows NT, enabling existing AS/400 applications to be rebuilt and delivered on Windows NT and integrated with Oracle's RDBMS.
"NT and Intel servers are enjoying a rapid growth of server market share that will continue to grow to about 45 percent of the server market by 2003," according to Gartner Group (Stamford, Conn.) research conducted by Tom Bittman, VP and research director. "Packaged-application ISVs built the large AS/400 installed base, but the same ISVs are hedging their bets with NT strategies."
Under the partnership agreement, Oracle is also expected to deliver technical assistance to AS/400 ISVs, facilitating migration.
--L. Greenemeier