IBM GIVES AS/400 CUSTOMERS FAST & EASY ACCESS TO INTERNET & LOTUS NOTES; To Improve Productivity & Spur Secure Electronic Commerce

Business Wire, June 4, 1996

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 1996--IBM today announced that AS/400(a) Advanced Series business computing systems now provide support for Lotus Notes(b) and easy access to the Internet. These tools promote collaborative computing and allow businesses to tap new markets around the world and reach more customers -- 24 hours a day.

IBM is introducing:

-- Internet Connection for AS/400(a), which transforms AS/400 into a Web server, allows customers to send any of their existing applications on the Internet -- without rewriting or translating those programs

-- IBM AS/400 Integration of Lotus Notes(b), enabling users to easily communicate with colleagues and customers, collaborate in teams and coordinate strategic business processes

-- More built-in security features to protect against hackers and viruses -- unlike other platforms, where security is an add-on feature

IBM is offering these enhancements through a new release of the AS/400 operating system, Version 3 Release 2 of OS/400(a) -- scheduled to become available on June 21, 1996.

"In the tradition of AS/400, where simplicity is integrated with sophistication, we are giving customers a way to easily exploit network computing," said Bob Dies, general manager, IBM AS/400 Division. "We expect that these communication and collaborative tools now available will help customers share information and applications on a global scale and capitalize on the business potential of the Internet."

Internet Connectivity

Internet Connection for AS/400 helps businesses reach current and prospective customers all around the world, and enables their own employees to be more productive.

Using Internet Connection, which supports HTTP drivers, businesses can serve any one of the 28,000 AS/400 applications -- without a rewrite or recompile -- over the Internet to customers, prospects and employees. Even traditional, host-based applications can be served to terminals running popular Web browsers. Internet users are also able to download files or software, as well as access the AS/400 database, from popular Web browsers.

Using the HTTP protocol, customers can enhance existing AS/400 applications with hypertext capabilities (links to related information) or attention-getting graphics, audio and video. With Internet Connection, companies can also monitor the attention people are paying to their presences on the Web.

"Transforming our AS/400 into a Web server was a breeze -- it took less time to set up than installing a browser on our PCs," said Ken Klausen, Senior Systems Programmer at South Dakota-based Black Hills Corp., which operates Black Hills Power & Light. "Since we're modestly-sized and in a fairly remote location, we're looking to use Internet Connection as a communication tool to level the playing field and reach new business customers in other parts of the country. We're also using AS/400 to build an intranet, where we can make internal communication even more efficient."

"With this announcement, nearly 400,000 AS/400 systems can be instantly transformed into Web servers and more than 28,000 applications can be Internet-enabled," said Gary Cohen, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, IBM Internet Division. "This is a major milestone in IBM's mission to help companies realize the benefits of network computing."

IBM is increasing AS/400 flexibility as well. AS/400 will now support the TCP/IP Serial Link Internet Protocol (SLIP), which provides native TCP/IP connectivity to the Internet over inexpensive telephone lines -- eliminating the need for LAN-attached routers and gateway servers.

AS/400 also supports the popular Internet Post Office Protocol (POP3), enabling AS/400 to deliver electronic correspondence to OS/2(a), UNIX(b), Windows(b) and Macintosh(b) clients running the most popular mail products.

Lotus Notes

With support for Lotus Notes Release 4, AS/400 customers will benefit from the best unified solution that integrates messaging, groupware and the World Wide Web for building and distributing custom client/server, Internet and intranet applications.

Notes' open architecture leverages and maximizes existing AS/400 investments by providing a rich client/server application development environment, bi-directional field-level replication, client/server messaging and integration with relational databases. As part of the IBM and Lotus Internet strategy, Lotus Notes also provides complete Internet integration, allowing users to easily publish, locate and share Internet information through functions included in Notes Release 4.

"By integrating Notes on AS/400, IBM and Lotus bring significant benefit to both the AS/400 and Notes faithful," said Robert Tipton, director of technology for Whittman-Hart, Inc., a Chicago-based Lotus Premium Business Partner and an All-Star AS/400 Partner in Development.

"Notes users will capitalize on the strong integration, reliability, security and industry-leading low cost of ownership of AS/400. The IBM/Lotus team is providing clear leadership in architecting solutions that provide high functionality and significant business payback."