RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC -- August 23, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced enhancements to Cisco Transaction Connection (CTRC), which provides TCP/IP end-users and servers with fast, reliable, and secure access to IBM mainframe resources. These new enhancements in Version 2.0 provide customers with access to IBM's Customer Information Control System (CICS) transaction applications using Systems Network Architecture (SNA) and/or TCP/IP.
"Through the collaborative efforts between Merrill Lynch, Cisco, and StarQuest in providing an end-to-end solution, CTRC allows us to further enhance our scalability, performance and ease-of-use capabilities, in addition to reducing cost and maintenance concerns," according to Howard Sorgen, Senior Vice President of Merrill Lynch. "This solution provides connectivity between Merrill Lynch servers and the mainframe's CICS transactions and DB2 databases. CTRC provides Merrill Lynch with a solution which positions us for the global Internet economy."
CTRC is a feature of Cisco IOS. software that resides on Cisco 7500 and 7200 class routers. Leveraging the strength of Cisco IOS software, CTRC can take advantage of many of its network services including security, load-balancing, redundancy, and quality of service (QoS). Additionally CTRC is the only solution running on a router platform, delivering increased performance, reliability, and scalability as compared to standalone gateways or proprietary host software typically required.
CTRC Version 1.0 connected Windows and UNIX applications directly to DB2, routing the Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) protocols directly from TCP/IP clients and converting them to SNA. CTRC Version 2.0 routes the Inter-System Communications (ISC) data access protocol used for CICS transaction applications as well.
"CTRC reduces the costs associated with general purpose gateway solutions--limited connectivity, high maintenance costs, and incremental support problems--by providing a reliable, low- maintenance router platform that can scale to thousands of concurrent connections," said Lori Bush, product line manager for Cisco's InterWorks Business Division. "This consolidated gateway approach simplifies the network architecture by removing additional devices in the network, and enables customers to realize significant cost savings, both initially as well as during production use."
CTRC allows customers to leverage an intelligent network service in the router to aid deployment of Web integration solutions, data warehousing, and client server applications requiring host-based data.
When purchasing CTRC, enterprises receive a site license for the StarSQL Enterprise Edition (EE) client from StarQuest Software available at no additional charge. StarSQL EE provides fast, seamless transfer of data from host resources into desktop and UNIX server-based applications. StarSQL EE may be downloaded from StarQuest's Web site at http://www.starquest.com.
Availability
CTRC Version 2.0 will be available from Cisco or through certified resellers in September 1999. There is no additional charge for the client software. Pricing for CTRC Version 2.0 starts at US$200,000 for 500 concurrent connections from each Cisco router.Cisco Systems
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