IBM introduces new applications, developer kit for APPN protocol

Electronic News, March 30, 1992 by Andrew Collier

NEW YORK -- IBM last week rolled out a developer's kit and new applications for its networking protocol, Advanced Peer to Peer Networking (APPN), in a bid to make the protocol an industry standard against incursions from a variety of competitors.

A flexible system for managing networks, APPN had been available on a number of IBM systems, including the AS/400, OS/2 3174 communications controller, and the System/36. With this announcement, IBM is extending support for APPN on PCs (DOS), the RS/6000 Unix workstation and, finally, on the recently released IBM 6611 router. IBM also is extending the ability of dependent displays to access TCP/IP-based Telnet servers over the Token Ring protocol.

Outside its own platforms, IBM has agreed to license the specification for the APPN network nodes and will make it available through a developer's kit in the first quarter of 1993. The license agreement will allow third-party vendors, particularly router companies, to incorporate APPN into their devices.

Shipment dates weren't released for all the products. APPN support on the IBM router will occur in the first quarter of 1993, for the RS/6000 in mid-1993, and for Networking Services/DOS in the third quarter of this year.

The timing of the shipment of APPN support for ACF/VTAM Version 4 for MVS/ESA will be a function of the outcome of a new program IBM is initiating with the APPN roll-out, called the Quality Partnership Program. Under QPP, IBM is selecting key customers and tracking their early use of APPN software to incorporate any changes that will enhance the product. Shipments to a selected group of fewer than 100 MVS customers will occur in December.

With the new APPN support, IBM is defending its turf from encroachment from workstations using LAN-based protocols, particularly TCP/IP, and Novell's IPX.

"First, we are opening up the SNA world to the world of interconnected LANs, distributed computing, client/server, highspeed networking and open standards," said Vann Hettinger, networking systems director of software laboratories, in the U.K. "Second, we are involving an existing base."

Ellen Hancock, general manager of network systems, said IBM expects the new APPN release to push the installed base of APPN networks from 60,000 currently to 100,000 in a few years.

Among the key attributes of APPN is that it allows the IBM mainframes to function as servers in a client/server architecture. The APPN protocol allows dynamic addressing and access of data anywhere in the network without going through the mainframe.

But the place of APPN among Fortune 500 companies who are IBM's prime customers is less than assured. "There's not a tremendous market for APPN nodes," said Don Czubek, a consultant with Gen2 Ventures, Saratoga, Calif. "IBM is trying to create a market."

Frank Dzubek, a consultant with Communication Network Architects, Washington, D.C., said IBM has to convince its customers that they can easily migrate heirarchical systems under SNA to APPN.

"Is it as passive as IBM says? If not, it won't be widely accepted," Mr. Dzubek said.

That was clear at the IBM briefing in presentations by two vendors, Novell and Network Equipment Technologies (NET).

Executives at both companies said they would "pick and choose" which aspects of APPN they would license for their products, in part because of the complexity of working with APPN's 100,000 lines of code.

Despite affirmations by Novell in a press release of its commitment to license APPN, Novell's director of marketing and development for Netware, Gerry Macchi, would only say his company "is looking" at licensing the specification. Novell, whose networks now are forced to access IBM mainframes for address information, is most interested in the directory applications, Mr. Macchi said.

Selino Lo, NET's product line manager, said integration of APPN into NET's router, IDNX, will occur slowly. "We may not want to slip the whole thing on the IDNX at once," Ms. Lo said. "We want to check the pulse of the market. We'll probably have a phased roll-out."

IBM's Hancock agreed that APPN would coincide in many systems with a number of other protocols. "There will be multiple code stacks if customers want. They may also have TCP/IP and OSI in their networks," she said.

IBM has one ace up its sleeve: APPN is widely viewed as a more sophisticated protocol than its competitors for wide-area networks. IBM pushed this point by mentioning the importance of APPN to future WANs that will run under Sonet and cell-relay based transmission systems. "TCP/IP and OSI, to handle high-speed bandwidths, will require major changes in architecture," IBM's Ms. Hancock said.