Riding the Wave of AS/400’s E-Business Growth
Rogue Wave Software (Boulder, Colo.) has added AS/400 and S/390 support to a family of cross-platform products designed to add scalability and portability for building C++ applications, especially for e-business.
There are five different tools that now support the AS/400. They are: Tools.h++, DBTools.h++ with a DB2 Access Library, Threads.h++, Money.h++ and Rogue Wave’s Standard C++ Library.
Previously, these tools were only available for Unix and Windows NT markets. According to Shannon Lewis, product manager for Rogue Wave, the AS/400’s continued growth as an e-business platform and the growing popularity of Rogue Wave’s C++ products for building e-business applications, were the main factors in bringing support to the AS/400.
“Mainframes continue to be the workhouses of corporate IT infrastructures, and Rogue Wave is committed to enhancing their performance through interoperable, component technology,” says Dr. Kathy Bush, VP of marketing for Rogue Software. “Rogue Wave’s cross-platform products are particularly well-suited to the AS/400 and OS/390 continuous-processing clustering architecture and we support IBM’s push to make AS/400 and OS/390 the e-business platforms of choice.”
“With e-business expansion and integration, Hurwitz Group (Framingham, Mass.) expects highly scalable platforms such as AS/400 and OS/390 to continue to be a critical part of mission-critical applications,” says David Kelly, senior VP, Hurwitz Group. “As a result, Hurwitz Group is seeing an increasing requirement for integration into these systems and flexibility in working with other systems and components. This announcement will enable the AS/400 and OS/390 community with a greater set of options for e-business application development.”
Rogue Wave’s set of components and libraries can be distributed across all operating systems, keeping the programmer’s interface consistent in order to streamline migration of enterprise applications to the mainframe.
Because Rogue Wave’s tools support multiple computing environments, it gives AS/400 users another means for cross-platform development. For instance, AS/400 shops that also run Windows NT can now build C++ applications to run across both platforms.
Two different groups use rogue Wave’s C++ tools. The first is ISV’s, who use them to build components for their applications. The second is end-users, who deploy them internally.
Rogue Wave has a Professional Services Group (PSG) dedicated to helping end users who need assistance in developing applications using Rogue Wave’s tools. “The PSG can help in any facet, whether it’s developing the applications or helping a customer fine-tune them,” says Bush.
According to Lewis, IBM assisted Rogue Wave in adding both AS/400 and S/390 support. “IBM has been very active and helpful in bringing support to the AS/400 and S/390,” she says. “They’re very excited about it, and they’re bringing a lot of customers our way who have a need for our products.”
The AS/400 product line is immediately available in six different combinations and includes installation and certification, a designated support contract for one year, and response and resolution time guarantees. The combinations are: Tools.h++; Tools.h++ and DBTools.h++ with a DB2 Access Library; Tools.h++ and Threads.h++; Standard C++ Library; Tools.h++, DBTools.h++ with a DB2 Access Library, and Threads.h++; Tools.h++ and Money.h++.
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