Integrating TCP/IP iïnets with IBM(R) Data Centers

Rating:
Summary: Must read for SNA managers
Review: "Integrating TCP/IP i-nets with IBM Data Centers" is an absolute must-read for network administrators, data communications managers, and chief information officers in organizations with IBM mainframe or midrange SNA hosts. Guruge is an expert on IBM's System Network Architecture, which, although a quarter century old, holds most of the data of the world's largest organizations. Guruge explains both in technical detail and with real-life case studies how organizations can take advantage of TCP/IP, the lingua franca of the Internet, to facilitate communications with and among SNA devices. If you speak the language of SNA networking, like 3270/5250,DLSw, APPN/HPR and are trying to do so in the same sentence with terms like HTML, Telnet, and screen rejuvenation, this is the book you must read. Mr. Guruge will not only explain how these technologies relate to one another, but he will provide examples of how organizations have married these technologies to meet specific organizational and business requirements. And by the time you finish the book you'll have a firm understanding of how your own organization can integrate its IBM data center with TCP/IP i-nets.

Rating:
Summary: Must read for SNA managers
Review: "Integrating TCP/IP i-nets with IBM Data Centers" is an absolute must-read for network administrators, data communications managers, and chief information officers in organizations with IBM mainframe or midrange SNA hosts. Guruge is an expert on IBM's System Network Architecture, which, although a quarter century old, holds most of the data of the world's largest organizations. Guruge explains both in technical detail and with real-life case studies how organizations can take advantage of TCP/IP, the lingua franca of the Internet, to facilitate communications with and among SNA devices. If you speak the language of SNA networking, like 3270/5250,DLSw, APPN/HPR and are trying to do so in the same sentence with terms like HTML, Telnet, and screen rejuvenation, this is the book you must read. Mr. Guruge will not only explain how these technologies relate to one another, but he will provide examples of how organizations have married these technologies to meet specific organizational and business requirements. And by the time you finish the book you'll have a firm understanding of how your own organization can integrate its IBM data center with TCP/IP i-nets.

Rating:
Summary: Great case studies
Review: One valuable feature is the historical emphasis, which is usually lacking from such books, but is crucial for those who inherit existing networks. With state-of-the-art changing so rapidly, it's hard for even a veteran IT profesional to recall what were considered optimal solutions ten, five, or even a couple of years ago. Many network engineers working today are too young to remember what networks were like as recently as 1993. Also, the case studies show how theory can be applied successfully in real-world situations. Often, it's hard to visualize how a technical solution will work in a particular environment; by including a variety of case studies, solutions can be made apparent to readers from diverse backgrounds.

Rating:
Summary: Vice President, Sales & Marketing, ICOM Informatics
Review: The book is very comprehensive, giving full coverage of all the information necessary to understand the implications and considerations that must followed in order to integrate IBM data centers with Internet technology. It provides an excellent explanation of the various Network, Gateway and management options that are available and their pros and cons. It is also very informative and thorough analysis of old vs. the latest groundbreaking technology available as well as a prognosis for future market winners and losers based upon valid market analysis.

It deals in depth with many concerns IS mangers typically have, including bandwidth and other performance issues related to various network types/configurations when it comes to "integrating the data center with i*nets".

I was especially glad to see his view on various vendors' e-business products or tie-ins and how these apply to applet, SNA-to-HTML conversion and programmatic access. Of course, in mentioning e-business, security is the number one concern that is raised by any reader, and was addressed in full with logical commentary/opinion as to what security methods are available and when/where to use them.

Extensive use of case studies to offer real-life examples of the technologies and how and why they were implemented for a given company's needs, adds further value by underlining the fact that the product/technology chosen is dependant upon each company's specific network and user requirements.

This book is a "must read" for any company IS manager considering a move to Web-to-Host technologies. The book focuses on the emerging Web-based host access trend and choosing the right solution for a given project.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Any Organization With IBM Host Systems
Review: The book is very comprehensive, giving full coverage of all the information necessary to understand the implications and considerations that must followed in order to integrate IBM data centers with Internet technology. It provides an excellent explanation of the various Network, Gateway and management options that are available and their pros and cons. It is also very informative and thorough analysis of old vs. the latest groundbreaking technology available as well as a prognosis for future market winners and losers based upon valid market analysis.

It deals in depth with many concerns IS mangers typically have, including bandwidth and other performance issues related to various network types/configurations when it comes to "integrating the data center with i*nets".

I was especially glad to see his view on various vendors' e-business products or tie-ins and how these apply to applet, SNA-to-HTML conversion and programmatic access. Of course, in mentioning e-business, security is the number one concern that is raised by any reader, and was addressed in full with logical commentary/opinion as to what security methods are available and when/where to use them.

Extensive use of case studies to offer real-life examples of the technologies and how and why they were implemented for a given company's needs, adds further value by underlining the fact that the product/technology chosen is dependant upon each company's specific network and user requirements.

This book is a "must read" for any company IS manager considering a move to Web-to-Host technologies. The book focuses on the emerging Web-based host access trend and choosing the right solution for a given project.

Rating:
Summary: Showes how integration is done quickly and at low cost
Review: This book proves that there are no excuses for NOT integrating IBM data centers to the Internet or Intranets. Security concerns, time to develop, cost, bandwidth - all these issues are addressed in the book and proven to be non-issues. From my experience the most difficult part in such an integration project is to integrate two teams or camps - the PC programmers, that don't want to hear about JCL and LUs with mainframe programmers and VTAM gurus that don't care about using the mouse (the arrow keys work just fine, thank you). Typically, there is an alphabet soup of acronyms that each camp is referring to mostly to keep outsiders out - SSCP, LU, PU, CICS, IMS and such on one side with TCP/IP, SSL,HTTP, etc. on the other side.

The book does a great job in explaining all the concepts involved in the mainframe/midrange network architecture, as well as explaining the TCP/IP based internet technologies

A multitude of charts are used to illustrate the underlying architecture and the protocols involved in gluing all the pieces together.

The author gives an overview of the evolution in networking software and hardware that has taken place in the last 30 years.

Real-life test cases are provided to prove that integrating IBM data centers to TCP/IP networks is not only possible, but does not require huge investments in either time or money. The reader should conclude after reading this book, that "Hey, it has been done before and nobody got fired".

Acknowledging the impact of Y2K on the scarcity of the enterprise IT resources, Guruge is describing solutions that do not require ANY changes to the legacy applications. All the integration work is done around them, with results ranging from immediate out-of-the-box, to ones that may take a few weeks to accomplish.

It goes without saying that the book is well indexed, with a proper glossary and can serve as a reference resource.

All in all a great book worth its weight in gold.