Attachmate and IBM Propose OHIO: New Open Standard for Universally Compatible Web-to-Host Access

Business Wire, August 25, 1998

--BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 1998--

Jointly developed "OHIO" allows e-business,

business-to-business applications to be vendor-independent

Attachmate and IBM today announced an industry-standard method to access host data via the Internet. The proposed Open Host Interface Objects (OHIO) standard is a vendor-neutral set of interfaces allowing web-to-host applications access to host systems.

In an industry plagued by proprietary solutions, Attachmate and IBM have opened the door for virtually all vendors to write to the same API, giving corporate developers a safe environment for writing e-business applications. Further, with frequent mergers, acquisitions, and corporate consolidation, this capability is especially important to ease IT efforts in business combinations where disparate systems are common. With OHIO, customers' investments in custom web-to-host applications are protected, ensuring their code will work in any system supporting the OHIO standard.

Freedom for developers.

Over a year ago, Attachmate and IBM, both industry leaders in the host access market, began collaborating on this open API. The resulting open environment reflects the market leaders' ongoing commitment to making web-to-host development easy and portable. For the first time, with OHIO, corporate developers making choices between platforms, server hardware, and vendors know applications will run compatibly with any host access system supporting this standard.

"Corporate information systems are undergoing a major transformation as businesses seek new opportunities to extend vital information access to remote employees, partners, and customers," said Dean Kimball, chief technology officer and senior vice president for Attachmate. "Interface standards like OHIO are key to the success of this evolution. Attachmate is absolutely committed to open computing and will continue to seek out opportunities to develop these standards for the benefit of our customers."

The OHIO Standard.

OHIO is a set of object classes enabling e-business applications to access either mainframe or AS/400(r) data. Organizations implementing web-to-host projects are reluctant to commit to a single, proprietary solution. OHIO enables developers to create these e-business applications with the confidence they will be compatible with any implementation.

"IBM is strongly committed to an open standard rather than a proprietary solution," said Carl Kessler, vice president of development, IBM(r) eNetwork(tm) Software. "This pioneering work extends the standards definitions already used in IBM eNetwork products such as Personal Communications and Host-on-Demand."

IETF Review.

OHIO will be submitted for review at this week's meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) TN3270/TN5250 Working Group. More information about the IETF and its proceedings is available at www.ietf.org.

Attachmate Corporation

For 16 years, Attachmate has been a truly global company, and today has more than 10 million customers worldwide supported by 80 offices in 30 countries. One of the ten largest PC software companies, Attachmate is the leading supplier of desktop and server-based host access management solutions. These solutions provide organizations the ability to manage, from a single console, who is allowed to access host data and what types of host data they can see. Attachmate's products enable users to safely and securely access mission-critical information located on hosts (mainframes, midrange, UNIX(r), DEC(r)/VAX(r), Unisys(r)) from any location inside or outside the firewall. A team of technical support and consulting experts backs all of Attachmate's products, including management software and development tools in addition to client and server products to help people access and use corporate data.

For more information about Attachmate's products, contact Attachmate's headquarters in Bellevue, Washington at 425/644-4010, 425/747-9924 (fax) or toll free at 800/426-6283. Attachmate's World Wide Web address is http://www.attachmate.com.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.

(c)1998 Attachmate Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Attachmate is a registered trademark of Attachmate Corporation. IBM and AS/400 are registered trademarks and eNetwork is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Ltd. DEC and VAX are registered trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. Unisys is a registered trademark of Unisys Corporation. Other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.