There's something for end-users and systems administrators alike in PowerTerm WebConnect version 5.5, the latest release of Ericom's host access suite, unveiled earlier this month. The new Application Zone should make it easier for users to locate and start host applications, which are populated from access lists and displayed as icons. Likewise, administrators will like the closer integration to Web portals, including IBM's Workplace, which WebConnect enjoys a very close relationship with.
When it comes to purchasing a host access suite, iSeries customers have a good selection of vendors to turn to. There are a number of vendors selling software that allows users to connect to iSeries servers remotely, using a Web browser or a PC-based emulator. This is a mature market, with IBM holding onto the lion's share of iSeries and mainframe seats, so vendors have to get creative if they want to survive.
Ericom has survived, and thrived, by doing something that no other host access vendor is doing with Web-based emulation suites: giving users access to traditional (i.e. iSeries, mainframe, Unix, VMS, and more than 30 others) hosts, as well as Windows hosts, through the same product. "We are the only vendor doing this range of solutions," says Eran Heyman, the CEO of Ericom. "There isn't a single vendor [besides Ericom] that provides that."
For users that just need access to Windows Terminal Services servers, the company offers a version of its PowerTerm WebConnect product, called WebConnect RemoteView, which counts for about half of Ericom's 30,000 customers and 6 million concurrent license seats sold (the company also sells a legacy-only version called PowerTerm WebConnect HostView). This puts Ericom in frequent competition with Citrix, which is just fine with Heyman. Despite the name recognition that Citrix has for Windows emulation, there is a huge untapped market for this class of product, and plenty of room for both vendors, he says.
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