Corporate data of record. Mission critical applications. Enterprise control. This is the world of legacy systems today and - considering the billions of corporate dollars invested in them - will be for a long time to come. But open systems, graphical user interface, and distributed computing are the future; and they're rapidly finding their way to our desktops.

How do companies marry such technologies? In many cases, the answer lies with middleware. Some businesses have chosen to expand their legacy interfaces to graphical windowing environments via cooperative processing. Others are dipping their toes cautiously into the use of open systems by migrating selected applications. Still others are using middleware to enable their disparate legacy systems to communicate openly - and for the first time - with each other.

Such coexistence among legacy and open systems is just beginning. We at NetWeave Integrated Solutions intend to be an important player in this market, now and for years to come. Below you will find some of our many customer success stories, each with its own unique spin on how NetWeave middleware played a key role in an enterprise-wide endeavor. As our home page expands, please make sure to visit our site again. We'll be offering more examples of NetWeave solutions to the challenges facing our worldwide customer base.

Power At The Desktop

PPG, a manufacturer of paints and pigments, controls its worldwide operations via networked Tandem systems, distributed in plants throughout the world. The systems are used for decision support purposes. To lesson the risk for severe capacity problems, NetWeave's client/database services offload some of the decision support functions from the Tandem systems to UNIX and PC workstations. NetWeave also connects the Tandem systems to PPG's VAX production control systems.

Data Replication

For over a decade, Amtrak has used Tandem systems for real-time train control in the Northeast Corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston. Currently in the process of upgrading its train control requirements, Amtrak chose NetWeave to play a major role in satisfying the railroad's Tandem, VAX, Stratus, IBM, PC, and UNIX interoperability needs. A major enhancement is the replacement of antiquated train controller consoles with UNIX workstations. NetWeave's database replication services allow the real-time Tandem database depicting the state of the railroad to be replicated on each of the many consoles. Another major upgrade takes advantage of client/server technologies to replace the manual passing of trains between Amtrak and neighboring train systems. NetWeave is used to connect the VAX, PC, and Stratus systems of the Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, Metro North, SEPTA, and other territories.

Real time Web integration

NetWeave provides the critical integration linkage between a web-based Personal Computer Ordering system, and the Back End Himalaya Scheduling and Manufacturing Systems. This Online Configuration and Ordering System supports thousands of concurrent users and processes thousands of daily transactions. Scalability, reliability, and performance are the key features that enable this manufacturer to trust NetWeave with this crucial business function.

Data Replication

The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSE) has joined the ranks of stock and futures exchanges worldwide that have moved to electronic trading, with the help of NetWeave. NZSE has tied Window, UNIX and Himalaya and other systems run by New Zealand brokerage houses throughout the country into the Himalaya trading and settlement owned and operated by the NZSE.

The New Zealand Stock Exchange required a robust and efficient middleware networking infrastructure to tie together the disparate systems. NetWeave was chosen as a result of broad platform coverage, excellent performance, and efficient operation over both LAN and WAN networks.

NetWeave has been deployed throughout New Zealand as the middleware backbone for carrying trades, orders, and settlement information between the brokerage systems and the Exchange systems.

The all-electronic trading system puts the trading floor at the broker’s fingertips and leads to a much higher level of customer service.

The Brokerage houses operate on a wide array of platforms, including Windows, Sun/Solaris (Sparc and Intel), HP/Compaq Tru64, and Linux.

Data Replication

The U.S. Navy depends upon hundreds of diverse data processing systems for managing its daily operations. The systems run on a variety of computing platforms and often must interoperate with each other if the Navy is to get maximum value. The Navy has turned to NetWeave to solve such interoperability problems. Two examples are the Navy’s JCALS and NALCOMIS systems.

JCALS is a distributed inventory system used by the Navy to track dozens of supply points. These are typically warehouses run by a variety of military subcontractors who supply the Navy’s needs worldwide. JCALS is tasked with finding requested parts and supplies from these supply points, no matter where in the world they may be. The process is controlled by the Asset Visibility system, which runs on a HP/Himalaya data processing system.

Orders for parts are received from ships and other Navy divisions by the Asset Visibility system and are distributed to the various supply points for confirmation of availability. The supply points are managed by HP HP/UX Parts Requisition systems. If a part is available, an HP Parts Requisition system responds to the Asset Visibility system with the details; and the requester is notified that the order may be placed. If the part is not available at any of the supply points, then the requester must order it through the normal procurement process.

Orders received by the Himalaya system are deposited in an outgoing message queue from where they can be picked up by the HP systems when they are able to do so. At some later point, each HP system to which the order was directed responds with its availability by sending a message to its outbound message queue. The Himalaya system fetches responses from these message queues and then formulates a response to the requesting party. The JCALS system used NetWeave to facilitate the communication between the Himalaya and HP based systems.

NALCOMIS is a repair management system. The Navy has 27 repair depots worldwide in the NALCOMIS system, and each is run by a Honeywell-based Repair Management system. The Honeywell systems interact with the Navy’s main supply system complex, which uses Himalaya and IBM systems.

NetWeave’s Reliable File Transfer (RFT) services solved the communication problem between these disparate systems, RFT not only is highly efficient through the use of sophisticated compression algorithms, but it also provides the robustness required by the Navy. Should a communications link failure or any other problem cause an interruption in a file transfer, RFT will pick up from where it left off when the connection is reestablished.

JCALS and NALCOMIS are excellent examples of the power of NetWeave’s broad capabilities. NetWeave’s services provide interactive messaging, message queuing, remote database access, and file transfer. The breadth of these services provides a single source solution for the Navy’s problems.

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