The Foundation of Model 204 Connectivity Applications
Most organizations today employ a diverse range of computers to
meet different needs across the enterprise. Sharing information
among them can be challenging. Unless, that is, you use Horizon
from Computer Corporation of America.
Horizon places Model 204 at the heart of a diverse client/server architecture.
It seamlessly communicates with other Model 204 regions, personal
computers and all other major IBM communication environments.
In a nutshell, it allows you to leverage all of your enterprise-wide
computing resources in an integrated, distributed computing environment.
Integrated Environments
By integrating the TCP/IP and APPC (LU 6.2) communications protocols with
CCA's powerful User Language, Horizon lets you manage
complex inter-process communication easily. As a result, you
can create seamless cooperative application environments across
address spaces on one machine, or across multiple computers
running a variety of operating systems. Applications simply
initiate a conversation with the system that manages the required
data.
In an
integrated Horizon environment the information is important,
not its location. Symbolic inter-process references make dialogues
location-transparent. You can, therefore, easily develop applications
on one machine and install them elsewhere. Users simply request
information without regard to its physical location.
And as
your system grows, you can logically group access to data
from new locations using the symbolic definitions, thus simplifying
the process. Furthermore, you can add or modify definitions
without interrupting the production environment
Horizon Advantages
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Defer
Costly Upgrades - Processor upgrades can be costly. The
situation is particularly frustrating when you must add
capacity to one resource while others remain under-utilized.
Horizon might provide a more cost-effective solution.
It enables you to eliminate bottlenecks by distributing
processing, even among disparate hardware and software
platforms. |
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Reduce
Storage Costs - Some organizations distribute data by
copying it to each participating platform. However, duplicating
data increases storage costs and introduces the need to
synchronize data. With Horizon, you can eliminate data
redundancy by giving everyone access to data without regard
to where it is or what technology manages it. |
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Increase
Productivity - By integrating the TCP/IP and APPC protocols,
Horizon delivers dramatic programming productivity increases.
User Language supports comprehensive database manipulation,
handling both text and numeric data, control of program
flow, and cooperative processing via inter-process conversation
verbs. With Horizon, your programming staff can develop
and deploy distributed applications as quickly and easily
as those running on a single processor. |
The
use of symbolic references further enhances productivity.
System managers can define local nodes for testing within
a single copy of Model 204®, thus enabling rapid development
of distributed applications without the need for time-consuming
and costly coordination of remote development teams. When
the application is ready for production, the system manager
simply changes the network definition–without disrupting
existing production applications.
Network
Control and Security
Distributing
processing also distributes security concerns. Instead of
a single node managing security for your network, now you
must address security on many nodes, both client and server.
Horizon implements three types of conversation-level security:
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Trusted
Requests include the user ID and Already Verified Information
(AVI) |
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Nontrusted
requests send only the user ID and password |
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Requests
with no security contain no user information |
Client
requests must match the security level of the Model 204®
server. To provide flexibility and control, you decide the
access level of each server. Horizon then distinguishes between
trusted and nontrusted partners–accepting requests from
the former while requiring a full user ID and password from
the latter.
To enhance your network control, Horizon also allows you to
monitor network definitions for usage, as well as dynamically
modify, add, and delete security definitions
Increase
the Return on Information Investment
Your
organization undoubtedly invests heavily to capture, store,
and manage information. Achieving a healthy return on investment
is possible only if people throughout the enterprise can make
effective use of the information. With Horizon, you can store
diverse data in a central repository while allowing distributed
systems to operate independently against it. Using this architecture,
you can choose the most appropriate hardware and software
for each distributed task, confident that they all have seamless
access to the central information repository.
To learn
more about Horizon, contact your Account Representative, or
submit an Information Request
Form.
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