Cognizant Focuses on AS/400 Internet Technologies
Looking to develop new Internet technologies for the AS/400, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (Teaneck, N.J.), an application outsourcer providing software development and maintenance services, announced it has formed a strategic relationship with Tata-IBM in India. Through the alliance, Cognizant and Tata-IBM will work together developing Internet technologies at a newly formed competency center in India.
The population of midrange systems in India is "very high," according to Lakshmi Narayanan, president and COO of Cognizant. Midrange Unix, AS/400 and VAX machines constitute about 70 percent of the market, compared to the remaining 30 percent, which consists of large and mainframe systems from companies such as IBM, Unisys, Honeywell Bull, etc.
Through its relationship with IBM, Cognizant is expected to offer services on the AS/400 to Tata-IBM’s customers, partners, PID partners and ISVs. In addition to providing these services to Tata-IBM customers and partners, Cognizant will also deliver technology developed at the competency center to customers worldwide.
“The objective of this center is to create competency and components that can be reused in Cognizant customer engagements worldwide,” Narayanan says. “Given the focus on e-business, activities are underway to create components that will facilitate rapid product and applications development.”
According to Narayanan, the decision to focus specifically on Internet technologies for the AS/400 came about because of market demand. “The market for AS/400-based product solutions is very limited, because of market demands,” he says. “As the Indian industry embraces the Internet world, there are plenty of opportunities to use the AS/400 as the e-business server or intranet server.”
--J. Martin