NetManage Simplifies Legacy Systems Integration with Host Access Platform

The Cupertino, Calif. company is releasing its Rumba mainframe terminal emulator and OnWeb virtualization products together as the Host Access Platform, said Vijay Lal, director of product marketing at NetManage.

The combined product allows developers connecting legacy systems to Web-based applications to turn information from legacy apps into objects and reuse them in new applications, he said.

"It helps [solution providers] bring new products and services to the market faster using the resources they have," he said.

Previously, solution providers and customers used Rumba as a terminal emulator to access information on mainframes and other legacy systems., and OnWeb as a separate product to connect that information to new applications.

Now developers will not have to toggle back and forth between the two offerings, boosting their productivity, Lal said.

The version of OnWeb in the Host Access Platform also is new. A key feature of OnWeb 7.0 is integration with Visual Studio.Net 2003, allowing solution providers to tie legacy resources to .NET applications in one development environment.

The Host Access Platform also supports J2EE-based tools such as WebSphere Studio from IBM and WebLogic Workshop from BEA, but these tools are not integrated with the platform, Lal said.

However, in the first quarter of 2004 NetManage will release a version of the Host Access Platform fully integrated with the Eclipse open-source framework, which IBM's tools are based on.

A slew of tools vendors support Eclipse as a framework allowing developers to use myriad tools in one development environment.